Deader than Dead
by shadowtiger23
Summary: David wakes up one morning to find his city infested with the living dead. Along with his friends, he must try to survive.
1. A Tremor

**This story is a work of fiction. Characters, placings and settings comes from my imagination. Any resmblance is entirely coincidental. No part of this story may be copied and used for other references without permission.**

**I do not own the George A. Romero or the Resident Evil franchises; however, they inspired this story.**

**Rise of the Dead**

**Chapter 1**

**October 15th, 2006**

**A soft vibration brought me out of my dreams at 5:00 in the morning. At first, I thought it was just my cat jumping on my bed. He usually wanted attention this early in the morning. I reached my hand out and patted...air. My eyes slowly opened and looked around. My cat was nowhere to be seen. Annoyed, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I had to go to work later and I needed my rest. **

**A couple of hours later, the sun woke me up. It's rays were poking through the blinds and on my face. I turned to my side to check my clock. 8:00. Even though I went to bed early last night, I still felt groggy. I sat up and suddenly shivered. My entire room felt like a refrigerator. My body felt like a block of ice. Even with my comforter, I felt my teeth chattering. I didn't understand. The weather reports showed that it was going to be warm all weekend. **

**Shivering slightly, I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower in my bathroom. I spent a couple minutes longer in the shower, trying to absorb the heat from this chilly morning. **

**When all of the hot water was gone, I got dressed and quietly went downstairs. My parents like to sleep late on Saturdays, and I didn't want to tick them off. It was surprised, however, to find them both at the kitchen table. My mom was browsing through a magazine and my dad was eating his breakfast. My mom was wearing a bathrobe over her night clothes, but my dad was dressed up this morning in his usually tie and dress pants. He had a scowl on his face. **

**I got a bowel from the cuppard, and poured myself some cereal. I carried the bowl and a glass of juice to the table**

**"What's going on?" I asked dad as I began eating.**

**He took his time chewing his toast before he told me. "One of my co-workers called in sick today so I have to go in and cover for him," he explained. No wonder he looked grouchy.**

**"But it's Saturday. Why you?" **

**He sipped his coffee. "Because I said I would. And you yourself work today, so why shouldn't I ?"**

**I sighed and took a sip of my orange juice. Dad works fived days a week from seven until six so he likes to enjoy his weekends off. Only on rare occasions does he work for somebody else on a weekend. Either their getting free donuts today at the office or he must be getting a big paycheck next week.**

**I turned to my mother."So what are you doing up?" I asked politely as I took a bite of my cereal.**

**"They're having a sale at Wal-Mart today, so I thought I would take your sister in and get her some winter clothes," she explained.**

**I groaned. Everytime a sale comes around, my mother drags me and my sister to the store and dresses us up like her own barbie dolls. The humiliation is unbelievable.**

**"Do you need anything while I'm there?" she asked me.**

**I cringed. "No thanks. I'll be okay for a while." I said.**

**Before she could say anything, I put my empty bowl in the sink and hurried into the living room. I nearly tripped over my twelve year-old sister, Natalie, who somehow snuck downstairs and was now glued in front of the TV. Normal for any kid these days. But my sister was welded to the TV twenty-four/seven. You need a crowbar to seperate her from the screen. **

**I glanced at what she was watching and sighed. I don't see how anybody could like Spongebob Squarepants. She believes it is the greatest cartoon ever created and deserves an Oscar. **

**"Do you ever grow tired of that show?" I said.**

**"No! Now leave me alone. Spongy is rescuing his friends from the shark gang," she told me, never taking her eyes off the screen.**

**I had to grin. I loved my sister, but she could be a real pain in the butt. She really needed to get some after-school activities or else her brain was going to go flabby.**

**I walked up the stairs to get ready to leave for work. Since it was Saturday, there probably wouldn't be to many people today at the library, which was probably going to make the day slower. Since it was Saturday, I could usually dress up the way I want. Days like these, I just usually put on a pair of pants and one of my sports jerseys. I found my boots under my bed and started to lace them up when my cat Maddie came out of nowhere and fought with the strings.**

**"Hey! I don't have time for games. I need to get to work, " I yelled as I tugged the strings out of his claws. But he didn't give easily. I kept him pinned down with one foot while I laced up my boot on the other. When I was done, I let him go and he jumped up onto my bed. **

**I putted on some deoderant and tried to flatten my short, black hair in the reflection of my computer moniter. I caught my cat staring at me in the reflection. It's real creepy when he does that. Almost like he's staring into my soul.**

**I rounded on him. "I also don't appreciate you jumping on me in the middle of the night," I explained even though I knew he couldn't understand.**

**He just meowed and settled down for a nap. I smiled and returned to my hair.**

**"Oh no, not again!" I heard my sister cry.**

**This sudden outburst brought me to my senses. I hurried downstairs to find out what caused my sister's outcry. When I arrived in the living room, Natalie was watching a news report. But it wasn't a news station channel. It still had the CN symbol on the bottom left screen.**

**"This is the fourth time. Why won't it stop?" she complained.**

**"Shush," I said**

**"...now known as the earthquake felt around the world, we have reports from every city in the world they have felt a small vibration in the earth."**

**"Earthquake around the world?" my mom questioned, coming in from the kitchen.**

**"Be quiet," I snapped.**

**"... although there has been no reported damaged in any major cities, geologists are puzzled that earthquake didn't even show on a single Richter scale in all major geological sites..."**

**"I gotta go. I'll see you guys tonight," dad reported from the front door.**

**I never took my eyes off the screen. "Okay, see ya."**

**"...now to your original broadcast."**

**"What, that's it?" I asked, outraged that they didn't have anything else. A news report was on the Cartoon Network channel and they only report a few seconds of news?**

**"Thank You," my sister prayed looking up at the ceiling.**

**I looked at my mom.**

**"Did you feel anything last night? **

**"No I didn't. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get ready,"she said and went upstairs. **

**I just stood in the living room. Was that earthquake the vibration I felt last night? If it was, why didn't mom feel it and only I did?**

**I went to the front door to ask dad. His car was already driving down the street when I arrived.**

**Dissapointed, I got my keys off of the hook in the hallway and went to work.**

**12:35**

**"Did you feel anything last night?" I asked Jessica, one of my co-workers.**

**"Besides the sudden urge to go the bathroom, no," she explained, eating her sandwhich.**

**I dropped the subject and went back to my lunch. I like work at the library part-time after school and on Saturdays. It's not the best paying job in the world but all my car payments have been paid and so I just work here for gas money. It's also very quiet and I get to meet new people everyday. Problem is, everybody just wants to get on the free internet we have.**

**Jessica is my only friend here. She helped train me when I started and we always help each other with our problems. She is twenty-two and is already married. I tease her about getting hitched with the first guy she met. She, however, tells me it's true love. Me, I don't believe in soul mates so I like to giver her a hard time about it.. I also like to tease her about the way she dresses. She always wears white. Even her Converse are white. **

**I threw my napkins in the trash and returned to the front desk. There, I found my best friend, Kevin, leaning on the desk. His back was turned to me, but I recognized his blond hair.**

**"Get off. This desk is for our computers and costumers, not to be leaned on," I snapped.**

**He turned around and gazed at me with blood-shot eyes. I laughed.**

**"Damn, what happened to you?" I asked. He's not exactly the drinking or partying type.**

**"The football team won the away game last night. All the players, cheerleaders, and pretty much everybody else was up all night partying in the floor above mine. I didn't sleep a wink," he groaned.**

**"Ha-ha. Why didn't you join them?"**

**"Because college scouts are coming to more of my games and I need to be in shape, not drowning my liver with alcohol."**

**I raised my eyebrows. "Drowning your liver? What is it going to do, suffucate when you down a shirley temple?"**

**"Shove it," Kevin warned.**

**I smiled. We've been friends since first grade so we now joke around.**

**Kevin is a year younger than me; although, we're in the same grade because he moved up when he was too advance for kindergarten. We met fighting over a box of crayons in art class in first grade. He's tall for his age, taller than me in fact. He is also the most respected athlete at our school.**

**Kevin's story is a sad one. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was twelve. Because he had no other family members, he was required to live in the dorms with the high school kids who are from out of state. He suffered through junior high by being picked on. But when he was made a starter on the basketball team in his sophomore year, he earned the respect he deserved from even the best seniors. Now that we're both seniors, he has ten different colleges trying to recruit him and even more are starting to notice his talents now that the season is about to start.**

**I suddenly got serious. "Hey,did you feel that earthquake last night?" I asked.**

**His face suddenly darkened.**

**"Yeah. At first I thought everybody upstairs, jumping up and down with the music being played. But I was on the bottom floor and everybody was on third. I couldn't feel the vibrations when they're that high up."**

**"What time was it when you felt it?" I asked.**

**He shrugged. "Maybe around five in the morning." He then took out his favorite coin and started flipping it. It was a coin that had heads on both sides so he could always win when we needed to settled something. I didn't realize he had one until last year, after he won all my CD's and my Barry Bond's autographed baseball. **

**He looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. "For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this. I asked everybody in my dorm if they felt anything but they were all to drunk to remember anything."**

**"Nothing?"**

**He grinned a little bit. "Except the quarterback puking on the couch and the captain of the cheeleading squad taking off her top."**

**I laughed. "Sounded like a fun party."**

**"Makes me wish I wasn't a basketball star," he chuckled.**

**I remembered something. "I forgot to ask how your date went the other night."**

**He smiled mischieveously. "I had a great night. You really need to meet this girl."**

**I knew which girl he was talking about. I have seen her in the hallways. She was the new girl at school. She transfered from a different school, about thirty or fifty miles away. I don't remember which one. However, Kevin was assigned to show her around school and where her classes were. The two really hit it off. **

**I noticed Jessica waving her hands and tapping at her watch. I got the hint and turned back to Kevin.**

**"Look, I need to get these books shelved. You should get back to the dorms and get some sleep," I told him.**

**Kevin looked over my shoulder and waved at Jessica. She smiled and waved back. Jessica always let Kevin talk to me during the work hours..**

**"Make sure you bust his ass if he slacks off," he whispered.**

**"I will," Jessica replied.**

**He winked at her and started to walk away.**

**"Don't worry about the earthquake. It's not the end of world," he told me.**

**I chuckled. Somehow, I just couldn't believe that.**


	2. Shopping

Ch. 2

My shift was over at 5:00. On my way home, I tried wracking my brains over the earthquake. It was stupid, I know, but weird. I just couldn't get it out of my head. It felt like an annoying test that I should be studying for.

During my brainstorming, my phone rang. The caller ID said it was mom. I know I wasn't suppose to answer my phone will driving, so I waited until I came to a stop sign to answer.

"Hello," I answered, keeping my eyes on the road.

"Hi, David. Where are you at?"

I looked at the street signs. "I'm about halfway home. Just turning on Jeffereson Street. Why?"

"I need you to go to Wal-Mart. I forgot a couple of things when I was getting your sister's clothes."

I groaned. "Now? Do you know how bad the traffic is going to be? It's rush hour."

"Please," she pleaded. "For your mother."

"Alright. You owe me though," I ordered.

"Fair enough." She told me what she wanted and hung up.

I snapped the phone shut and pulled into someone's driveway, then backed up. I hate running errands for my mom. Even though I'm her son, I'm not her errand boy. But when I told her that one day, she said I would have to start paying rent around the house. That shut me up.

Even though it was Saturday, traffic was still pretty bad. I pulled into the parking lot, dodging cars and people and eventually found a spot near the front.

I opened the door and immediately shivered. The air was seemed colder than it was this morning. It was the middle of October. Why was it getting colder? It was beginning to creep me out.

I walked inside to a rush of customers. This place always reminded me of a zoo and someone let the animals out of the cages. Kids were screaming for treats, parents mumbling about the costs of milk, and junior-high's trying to act cool. College students running the registers, the smell of fresh bread and hair gel in the air, and a full blast of explosions from the arcade.

I checked the time on my phone. I figured that I had about a hour before dinner was ready. Plenty of time for me to goof around. Sometimes I like to window shop or play video games.

I went to the literary section first. The new issue of WWE Magazine was in, but it was wrapped in plastic. It would have to wait until I got paid. Instead, I went over to the books. I read a few chapters in the new Stephen King book, browsed through the new Michael Crichton book, and flipped through the new Guiness Book of World Records.

After I was finished, I headed over to electronics. People were bustling around, checking out the new plasma flat-screens and listening to samples of music. I tried to squeeze my way through everybody and headed to the Playstation demos. There was a new atv game, so I engrossed myself in it. It wasn't until a few minutes later, my neck aching from looking up, that I felt a tap on my shoulder. I paused the game and turned around. It was one of my classmates, Charlie.

"Hey, David," said Charlie.

"Hi. What's going on?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Nothing much. I just got back from my quiz bowl." He then grinned. "Guess what? Our school came in second. That get's us into state."

I smiled. "That's great. Congratulations."

Charlie is the captain of the of academic team at our school. He's also my chemistry partner. He has an GPA of 4.0, but he's built like a tank. I don't know why he would be on the academic team when he could be on the football team without having to try-out. But he says he can't, becaue his glasses would fall off. He also said his popularity would be demolished if he joined. I still wonder about that.

He can be a real nerd sometimes, but if it wasn't for him, I would have failed chemistry a long time ago. Ever since then, I always pick him to be my partner when we do an experiment. He also helps me with my other classes. He has tried constantly to get me on the academic team, but I keep telling him that my fingers aren't fast enough to press the buzzers. In truth, I have no idea what the answers are when the judges ask the questions. It sounds like only Stephen Hawking can answer those questions.

"So what are you doing?" he asked, gesturing at the game controller.

"I'm shopping for my mom," I answered simply.

He looked around. "She like video games, too?"

"No, I'm taking time for myself before I get my mom's stuff."

"Well you look like your real hard at it," Charlie smirked.

I punched him in the shoulder. Then I caught movement at the end of the aisle. When I saw who it was, my stomach flip flopped. It was Heather, Charlie's girlfriend. She walked towards us.

"Come on, we got get going if we want to catch the movie," she told Charlie. She then noticed me. "Oh, hi David."

"Hi Heather," I mumbled, feeling my tongue go numb. Heather is one of the hottest girls at our school. She's also the co-captain of the academic team and the senior class president. I once tried to ask her out, but she told me that I was too nice of a person to go out with. It wasn't a crushing blow, but still, ouch.

I don't see how a guy like Charlie could get a girl like her. But when I see them together, they just fit. Nevertheless, she is still a good friend.

"Shopping David?" she asked.

"Yep, I just love shopping."

Heather rolled her eyes. Then looked at Charlie.

"Come on, we're going to be late," she complained.

"Alright, we can go now," he groaned. He shook my hand. "See you around."

"You too."

I watched them leave, but then I thought of something and ran to catch up with them.

"I meant to ask you guys something. Did you guys feel that earthquake last night?"

They both looked at each other and gave me a puzzled expression.

"Actually, yeah. I think it happened around maybe five in the morning or something like that," Charlie explained. "At first, I thought it was just the buzz from the quiz bowl."

Heather nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"Weird, huh?"

I nodded. Only Charlie and Heather would get a buzz from winning a quiz bowl. But still, it seemed like only a few people realized that there was an earthquake this morning.

They left and I went to get my mom's stuff. I got everything on the list and made my way to the front check-out aisle, trying to avoid the clerks pushing carts full of furniture boxes. I picked the line that seemed the shortest and waited.

There were three people in front of me. A elderly senior, a woman who was trying have her kid quit putting candy in the cart, and girl with short, red hair. It took me a moment for me to recognize her. She was the new girl at our school, Kelly. The girl that Kevin went out with last week.

I gathered my courage and tapped her on the shoulder. "Is your name Kelly by any chance?"  
She turned around. She had pretty face; she had green eyes, a perfect nose, and even a couple of freckles. I could see why Kevin liked her.

"Yes. And who might you be," she asked, puzzled.

"My name's David Peterson. You went out with my best friend, Kevin Bradford, last week."

Her face brightened. "Oh, you're David. Yes, Kevin told me about you. He said he was sort of your half-brother."

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like Kevin. But were not really brothers. My family just sort of took care of him. How did your date go."

"A blast," she replied. "I haven't had that much fun since I left my last school." Then she frowned. "I haven't had the courage to call him yet."

"You should. He told me he had nice time, too." I winked. "He really likes you."

It was her turn at the check-out. She put her stuff on the conveyer belt.

"So, you think I should call?"

"It's not up to me to decide," I stated.

"I guess you have a point," she agreed. She turned around and payed for her stuff. Then turned back to me.

"I see you around school," I told her.

She walked away and waved. "Bye. It was nice meeting you. I need to go home and get some sleep."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Oh, that stupid earthquake woke me up this morning. I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards."

I felt my mouth drop open. But before I could say anything, she left.

Shaking my head, I placed my items on the conveyer belt and looked at the register. A raggard looking teen was behind the check-out counter.

"Hey, I've been here for a hour after my shift was over," he told me wearily. "Do you mind if I went home and my replacement came here?"

I nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

He gave a big sigh of relief and left. I turned around to look at the people surrounding me. I could still see Kelly, walking out the door. She caught me staring and gave me a final wave. I waved back. I continued to looked around and saw Charlie and Heather struggling with their groceries. I snickered when Charlie dropped a carton of eggs.

They saw me and waved. I tapped my watch. They nodded, getting the hint. Charlie grabbed the carton and hurried Heather out the door.

"How can I help you?" came a cheerful voice behind my back.

I turned around. When I saw who was behind the counter, I felt my stomach turn to ice.

It was Monica Talbert, my ex-girlfriend. I forgot she worked at Wal-Mart.

All cheerfulness just evaporated from her face. Monica was my first girlfriend. Our relationship began in junior high, and ended two months ago. She decided to end it herself when she found a guy named Zake, who had a corvette and a motorcycle, was captain of the tennis team, and was dumb as a rock. That didn't matter to her. He was popular, I wasn't. She wanted to get on the map of popular students. Especially since it was our senior year. When she told me that our relationship was over, he was there beside her, laughing at me. I didn't go quietly though. When the guy told me to beat it and pushed me, I broke his nose.

"Hello," I said quietly, trying to put a fake smile on my face just to irritate her.

She didn't answer, just passed my items under the scanner. She didn't even look at what I was buying. She just stared at me, probably trying to figure out if she could kill me right there and get away with it.

It was the most uncomfortable moment of my life. It seemed to last forever until she was finally done. I handed her the money, but she didn't reach out for it though. I took the hint. She didn't want to talk to me, nor did she want to touch me. So I just laid my money on the counter.

She looked at like I just placed a dead animal on the counter. Reluctantly, she picked it up and put it in the register. She took her time counting my change.

"Tell you what," I said suddenly, grabbing the sack. "Just keep the change."

She scowled and threw the change back in the drawer, then she just slammed it shut.

I turned and walked away. Then I stopped and turned around.

"Oh by the way, you look very nice," I said with fake cheerfulness.

She glared at me and gave me the finger.

Walking away, I now realized I was stupid to go out with that girl.


	3. A Warning

**Rise of the Dead**

**Ch. 2**

**6:37**

**When I came home a few minutes later, I found Natalie glued to the TV again. The only the difference from this morning was she was wearing new shoes and a new winter jacket covered with Pokemon characters. Which happened to be what she was watching.**

**"Do you ever go to the bathroom?" I asked while hanging my car keys back on the hook.**

**"No, I pee on the floor," she explained without looking at me****.**

**I shuddered. "Sick."**

**I walked into the kitchen and put the groceries onto the table. Mom was on the phone, placing an order for a pizza.**

**"You're not going to cook tonight?" I asked, confused. My mom always liked to cook.**

**"It's Saturday and I don't want to spend my energy making dinner when I can spend a few dollars to have someone else make it," she told me. **

**"Yeah, someone who spends all their time working on minimum wage to make you happy," I shot back.**

**"Hey, someone has to."**

**"You know, they're probably plotting their revenge by sticking something into our pizza that we really don't want."**

**Mom shrugged. "We'll risk it."**

**I knew I never win this complaining contest so I went upstairs. I was still fumming over my meeting with Monica. However, my mood lightened a little when I saw Maddy sleeping on my new pair of jeans outside of my room. It always cheered me up when I saw him like that. Just sleeping on my clothes instead of his pillow in the living room.**

**I groaned and pulled him off. "Can't you sleep somewhere else?" I asked, holding him up to my face. He just meowed.**

**I carried him into my room and placed him on my bed. He settled down and began sleeping again. Meanwhile, I went to the desk and turned on my birthday present. My parents got me a laptop for my eightenth birthday to prepare me for college. It was complete with Microsoft office and Wi-Fi connections. I plugged my phone extension into the port and booted up the Web.**

**The first thing I did was I went to my favorite wrestling site. I was shocked to find out that my favorite wrestler was released. Frustrated, I went to the yahoo website to check my e-mail messages. I was expecting a message from a old friend of mine, John Haghter, from Seattle about staying up there for the summer so I can look at colleges. It would also be my summer vacation. **

**"What the..."**

**There was a breaking new report on the home page once it was downloaded. The headline said "Massive riot outbreak". The summary read that an unknown number of people have begun attacking police and other citizens. There have even been reports of killings in seperate links.**

**This certainly got my attention. I moved my finger across the touch pad and clicked on the box. It was a short report, but startling.**

**"Starting at 3:00 P.M Eastern Time, riots have suddenly broken out in all the cities along the west coast. L.A. and San Francisco have reported are large number of casulties and hospitals are overflowing with patients with injuries. Portland believes that they have the riots under control and are bringing the suspects who started the riot in custody. However, Seattle has just begun to recieve reports of gang violence and are sending police forces to settle the matter. All cities are confident that the will have the violent riots under control before 10:oo P.M. Eastern Time. L.A. and S.F., however, may take as long as 1:00 A.M. ET. **

_**Riots? What could cause riots in four major cities all along the east coast?**_

**I moved my hand across the pad and typed in the CNN link in the address box when a voice called for me downstairs.**

**"David, the pizza's here and your father is back," mom's voice echoed.**

**"Okay, I'll be there in a second."**

**I hope that John was okay. I sent him a quick e-mail telling him to meet in the Yahoo chat room at 10:00 P.M. CT. **

**I made my way to the kitchen, prying my sister away from the TV as we went into the kitchen. Natalie and I grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down at the table. The pizza smelled great as I took a slice of pepperoni and took a big bite.**

**"Did you here about the riots in L.A.?" I asked everybody with my mouth full.**

**"Yeah," dad said. "A few of my co-workers were talking about it. Something to do about the earthquake this morning."**

**"But I thought that there was no damage done to any of the cities?" **

**" It's nothing. Earthquakes happed frequently on the west coast. But whenever one occurs, everybody's got to make a big deal about it and began to loot supermarkets," dad explained. My mom nodded.**

**My parents can be a little high about themselves sometimes. They think they are better than everyone else. It drives me nuts.**

**I tried to changed the subject. "How was work today?" I asked dad.**

**He shrugged. "Same old, same old. I bust my ass to make ends meet on a weekend and keep food on the table."**

**I groaned and dad looked stern at me. "Alright then, how was your day then?"**

**"Same old, same old."**

**Dad shot a look of anger in my direction and then returned to his dinner. We both learned that we didn't want things to get ugly in front of the family. And whenever we fight, it's always ugly.**

**We ate the rest of our dinner in an uncomfortable silence. Well, I did anyway. After Natalie got done with her first piece, she dashed into the living room and was back in front of the screen..**

**In my mind, I kept hoping that John was okay and that the riots have settled down. I ate as fast as I could so I could hurry and check the message board. When I was done, I put my plate in the sink and dashed upstairs. But when I got halfway to my room, mom called at me from the kitchen. I hesitated, then went back down.**

**Mom was doing dishes when I entered back into the kitchen. "Could you take Natalie across the street to the Thompson's house? Her friends are having another sleepover," she asked, nodding onto the table. It was Natalie's sleeping bag and a suitcase.**

**I groaned. "That's the third time this month. Don't they ever get tired of playing dress-up and telling ghost stories."**

**Mom just laughed. "It's a girl thing. You wouldn't understand. Besides, you used to go to your friend's houses all the time. You pratically lived at the dorms when Kevin moved there.**

**I sighed. "When do you want me to take her?**

**"Now, if you could please."**

**I went into the living room to find Natalie five inches away from the TV screen. She was already to go, but did not want to leave. I groaned and picked her up off the floor. She threw a short tantrum when I put her on my shoulder like a baby. It always annoyed her when I did that. However, it always made my mom laugh. **

**I dropped her off across the street, where her best friend, Bonnie, lived. Natalie rang the doorbell and I was immediately surrounded by other nine-year olds. The girls had their sleeping bags in the living room and started a horro movie. I waved at Mrs. Thompson and put Natalie's stuff at the door. I left before they had a chance to drag me in and strap to a chair. Once I made a mistake by staying for a few minutes and ended up tied to a chair with the girls putting make-up on my face. Someone took a picture of that. I haven't found out who or where they keep the picture.**

**I arrived home, feeling happy for once that I would actually have the TV for a change. However, when I got there, my parents were already there, starting one of their old black and white love stories. Groaning, I grabbed a piece of pizza from the frigde and went upstairs to my room. The clock on the microwave said that I still had about a hour until I met up with John online. **

**To pass the time, I tried to do some homework. But my eyes kept watching clock. Even though the report said the riots were beginning to get under control, I couldn't help but think that something was very wrong.**

**When I logged on to the chat-room later that night, I could not find John's name on the list of people who were online. I waited for fifteen minutes before I went back to the Yahoo home page.**

**I saw something on the screen I will never forget.**

**There were now reports of full scale rioting going on in every major city in the world that was within 100 miles of the coasts.**

**I felt my body trembling. What could trigger world-wide riots in different continents. I clicked on the link the lead to the latest report.**

**"Full-scale riots have erupted in cities from all around the world. From Paris to Sydney, vicious and bloody riots have erupted in every major city on every continent. There have even been reports of shots fired and killings. Hospitals are being overrun and paramedics are being attacked. People have tried to flee these riots by leaving the city, but have been attacked as well. Strangely, there has been no motive discovered to the result of these riots. There have been no racial or political movements so everyone is baffled. **

**"Every major leader in these cities has declared martial law until this chaos has settled down. Citizens are required to stay inside their homes until other wise told so. If necessary, everything will be brought to everyone's homes. Stay tuned for other reports."**

**I sat there, shocked. How could something like this happen? The very society we have lived in, after surviving nearly every obstacle in our way, seemed to be crumbling beneath us. Even though my city was not one of the ones declared for martial law, I could not believe after one day the world was falling apart. The world was going to hell, I know, but I didn't think it would happen this quickly**

**I went back to the chat-room. John was not there nor was there signs he logged on. Now, I was starting to get worried. Seattle was one of the cities declared under martial law. **

**I went back to Yahoo main page and logged on to my mailbox. **

**There was one message from John.**

**Anxious, I clicked on the message and got the horror of my life.**

"dave get to safety. they ar all over th place. warn evrybody aroun u. rite now theyre in my house trtying to brek in. Theyre not riotrs. they are ;';.;/.ppkop."

**That was the end of the message. I got a sudden chill. This was beginning to sound like a horror movie. There were a few things wrong with this message.**

**First of all, John always kept his promise. He would meet me when I asked him to be in the chat room.**

**Second, John, no matter what everybody else said, always used perfect grammer when typing messages. He didn't use shortcuts. It looked like he typed this message in a hurry.**

**And finally, there was no sense to the end of his message. I didn't understand the symbols at the end of the message. Neither did my spell check. **

**But when I looked to see where the symbols were on the keyboard, I saw that they were around the enter key.**

**He didn't click his 'send' box, he pressed the enter key. But in his hurry, he pressed other keys.**

**Like something interupted his typing. **


	4. Sleepless Nights

Ch. 3

1:30

**I jumped from my desk and ran downstairs. I had to tell my parents what was going on. My insides felt like ice and my feet seemed to turn into jello.**

**They weren't in the living room or the kitchen. I felt my adrenaline kick. My parents were always doing something home on a Saturday night; whether it was watching TV or eating ice cream on the front porch, they always stayed home.**

**However, when I glance up at the mantle clock, I saw that it was already Sunday. Somehow, I spent nearly three hours online and didn't even know it. I guess the shock must have gotten to me that I didn't notice the time.**

**I raced back upstairs to my parent's bedroom. The door was locked when I tried opening it. I began to hammer on the door, hoping they didn't take their sleeping pills. I breathed a sigh when I heard someone's footsteps walking towards the door.**

**"What?" came my dad's muffled voice.**

**"Dad, I think there is something very wrong. People are going crazy and rioting in the cities," I exclaimed.**

**The door opened. "What are talking about?" my dad questioned.**

**I explained. "Riots are breaking out in every major city. They have become so dangerous that all city officials have declared martial law."**

**He yawned and rubbed his eyes.**

**Frustrated, I began to yell. "Don't you care what's going on? They could issue martial law here."**

**Calmly, he said, "David, we just got done watching TV. They said on the news report that the riots have calmed down and order is being restored."**

**"How is that possible? They said that there were fatalities."**

**"It just has," he snapped. "You probably saw a two hour old news report on the web. Now get to bed. Some of us like to sleep in on a Sunday."**

**"But-" I started before he slammed the door in my face.**

**Furious, I rushed back downstairs and turned on the television. **_**Why is dad being uncoorparative? Doesn't he care what's going on? **_

**I fumbled for the remote in the dark and switched on the TV. To my surprise, nothing new was being reported on our local stations. I turned it to CNN and waited, unconvinced that they would just stop. After reporting a segment about abortions, they a reported update on the riots. I braced myself for the worst.**

**"All the riots in Paris, Syndey, Hong Kong, L.A., and Moscow have been reported to have some control over the cities. Calm has been restored and though there have been no new reports from police, there have been reports of a cease in attacks. Now back to our original story..."**

**I turned off the screen. How can that happen? The L.A. riots back in 1992 lasted three days. The Boston World Series parties didn't cease until the Series was over. How can mass riots in so many cities be demolished in such a short amount of time? I began to worry that some kind of drastic decision was made in order to stop them.**

**I went to the window and looked across the street. The lights were off at Natalie's slumber party. I guess everybody was alseep.**

**Kevin was the next person I should ask. I raced upstairs and switched on my cellphone. I dialed his number, but all I got was his voice message. **

_**Damn. Why can't he be out partying with friends like everybody else on a Saturday night/Sunday morning?**_** But then again, I guess I shouldn't talk.**

**I logged back onto the internet and read the first report of the riots.My dad was right. The report on Yahoo was several hours old. **

**I scanned the page for the first cities that reported them. The newreport read that the cities in other countries first reported them only a few hours after the earthquake. From what the reports stated, they started around the mountains and coastal cities. **

**Now that was weird. Why would they start there? Was there a connection between the riots and the earthquake? The reports didn't reveal a pattern; however, I was convinced there had to be one. I knew that somehow, these violent times were part of the earthquake from this morning. I just couldn't figure it out.**

**I went back to my mailbox and reread John's message. I still got chills ever time I finished it. John must have been in an absolute panic when typing this message. He obviously wanted to warn me about something, but could not finish the message. Was he just in a hurry or decided that perfect typing in e-mails was just ridiculous. It still did not explain the end part of the message.**

**I logged off. With nothing else to do, I got ready for bed. But with all the adrenaline in my body, I doubt that I would get any sleep. Also, I kept getting this feeling the worst was not over.**

**I turned to Maddie, who was sleeping on my bed again. "Am I going crazy?"**

**I got no response. Lazy cat.**

**Falling asleep isn't always easy for me. My mind was a buzz and my body was hyped up. When I finally drifted off, I dreamt of people screaming, gunshots, and for some odd reason, snarling animals.**

**It was late Sunday morning when I finally awoke. Normally I felt better after sleeping late on a weekend morning. But with all the action going several hours before hand, I felt exhuasted. And restless.**

**My feet stumbled into the kitchen. My mom was eating toast and reading one of her books. She looked up as I walked in.**

**"What are you doing today?" my mom asked.**

**"I'm just going to lay on my butt and watch tv for once," I replied. **_**I have been waiting to do that for a whole week.**_

**"Sounds like a plan," mom replied.**

**I looked and realized dad was here. "Where's dad?"**

**"He went golfing this morning with some of his friends at the office."**

**Okay, now I was ticked off. Dad nows how much I like golfing and he didn't take the time to wake me up and bring me along. Golfing was the one thing we could get along at. He enjoyed that.**

**"Why didn't he wake me up?" I complained.**

**She shook her head. "I don't know. I just found his note on the table when I woke up this morning."**

**I slammed my bowl on the table a little harder than usual. I ate my cereal really quickly. If I hurried, I could catch the morning news and find out what happened to the riots. However, as I put my bowl away, I heard sirens blazing by the house.**

**"Oh for crying out loud, that's the fourth time this morning," she said.**

**I raised an eyebrow. The fourth?**

**"Why can't people just stay out of trouble? It's irresponsible!" mom yelled.**

**Things were getting weird around. Why have sirens been going by our house? I know it was eleven in the morning on a Sunday, but what could happen in that time? Were they police or ambulance? Did a lot of people of too much to drink and were crashing all over the place?**

**"Were they police cars or ambulances?" I asked mom. **

**"Both," she replied.**

** I shuddered. Only bad things could happen when those two traveled together. **

**"Do you know why?" I asked mom.**

**"No."**

**I recognized that 'no'. It ment she didn't want to talk about it while she was reading. I went into the the living room and picked up the remote and turned it to the town's local station. I stared at in disbelief at the screen.**

**It was playing the emergency broadcast sign.**

**I changed it to another channel and saw a man giving a report about San Francisco.**

**"...evacuated the entire city. Anybody going to San Francisco needs to turn back immediately. Everyone avoid the city at all costs. It's a war zone. The National Guard has been overrun and SWAT was beaten down. I repeat, avoid San Francis-"**

**I changed the channel.**

**"...the recent mass riots have been reported to result in several killings. The death toll in Paris has reached two hundred thousand and Tokyo has reached three hundred forty thousand. Even has we speak more deaths are being-"**

**The remote slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor. I was dizzy with horror and disbelief. Something very wrong was happening to the world. I had to show mom this, but I couldn't move my feet. I was petrified. **

**And that was when my life went to hell when my sister walked into the kitchen from the back door.**


	5. Little Sister

10:55

**"Honey, what are you doing home already?" I heard my mom ask.**

**I didn' hear Natalie say anything. I didn't even care. I was still in shock. However, I snapped back to reality when I heard my mom let out a blood-curling shriek.**

**"David, call nine one one! Your sister has blood all over her nightgown!" she screamed.**

**I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the cordless on the wall. I dialed the numbers, glancin at Natalie. She was indeed drenched in blood. It ran from her chest all the way down to her feet. She even had blood on her face. My first thougth was Natalie must have some sort of a virus and was vomiting blood. She kept fighting my mother while she tried to wipe the blood from her mouth.**

**"She's delirious. She must be running a fever," mom told me. Natalie was making some gurgling noises. I thought she was going to throw up again. **

**Then my mom gasped. "She's got a bite on her arm. Its stopped bleeding but it's big. It looks infected too."**

**"I'll tell the paramedics." I listened but I kept getting a busy signal. "It's busy!"**

**"How can it be busy?!" mom cried. "They're a hostpital! Try again."**

**I hit the redial button and pulled the phonebook from the kitchen drawer. I started checking the yellow pages for other doctor's offices. **

**"Anything?" mom glanced at me. She had a hold of Natalie's wrists, who was still breathing really heavily.**

**I listened. Same thing. "Nothing." **

**My mom had a look of disbelief. I couldn't believe it either. There should have at least been a recorded message to take our call. But then, things got worse.**

**Because when my mom dropped her guard to glance at me, Natalie lunged forward and bit my mom on the neck.**

**My mother let a scream that nearly broke the windows. I dropped the phone and lunged for my sister, trying to push her away. She wouldn't budge so a grabbed her around her waist. I squeezed her middle and pulled. She let go, but I thought I heard the sound of ripping fabric.**

**I looked down in horror as Natalie had a piece of my mom's flesh dangling from her mouth. I looked up and saw that the right side of my mom's neck was gone. There was sinew of skin hanging out from below her jaw and the blood jutting out from a severed artiery. She tried to scream again but she lost her breath as she collapsed on the floor.**

**Natalie was still fighting me, trying to bite my hands to get lose. I hesitated for only a second, then I opened the back door and threw my sister into the backyard. She landed with a hard thud, laying motionless on the grass. I thought she was knocked out when to my surprise, she jumped right back to her feet. As if the fall didn't even hurt her.**

**When I looked into her eyes, I saw a mad, red gleam of something that didn't look human. My blood went cold as she hurried back to the door, snarling. I immediatly shut the door and locked it. Natalie thumped against the door. Then continued to pound it. Horrified, I grabbed a dish towel and went back to mom.**

**She laid on the floor, gasping. Her wound was still gushing out blood. I tried to pull her arms away from the wound, but they were like a vice. "Mom, let me see it!"**

**She slowly let go. I suddenly relized that her body was getting weaker from the loss of blood. Her arms were shaking.**

**My mom was dying right before my eyes.**

**I placed the towel on her neck and then placed her hand over it. "Hold it right there," I told her as I picked up the phone. There was still getting a busy signal. I threw the phone against the wall, frustrated. **

_**Damn it, just what the hell is going on?**_

**I looked back and saw my mom's eyes fluttering, her breathing was becoming heavy. The towel was wet and falling off her neck.**

**"Mom, you're going into shock! You need to stay awake!" I yelled. I grabbed another towel from drawer. **

**Her breathing started to become slower as the pool of blood started to grow bigger around her. Her limbs were beginning to jerk involuntary as well.**

**"Hang on! We're going to the hospital!" I told her as I ran to the front door to get my flip flops. I then jostled a note on the front of the door with a permanent marker telling dad where we would be if he got back. I then ran back into the kitchen. Then gasped in surpise.**

**My mom was not there. She just dissapeared.**

**"Mom?" **

**I looked on the floor and spotted footprints with blood leading into the dining room. I hurried into the room, thinking that mom was running around in a blind panic. When I reached the dining room, however, she was standing calmly at the window. She was very still, like nothing had happened to her.**

**"Mom?" **

**She snapped he head around. When she spotted me, she snarled and crouched, like a cat. It was impossible. My mom could barely breath, much less stand up. But then I saw her eyes. They were bloodshot and full of rage, just like Natalie's. And then I noticed t hat the wound on her neck stopped bleeding and blood was clotting. Again, impossible. Natalie bit into an artery. Nothing could stop that blood flow. **

**"Mom, are you alright?" I asked.**

**She didn't say anything. She just charged at me and knocked me to the ground. She landed on top of me, knocking the wind out of my lungs. My arms were pinned underneath her body while she tried to bite anywhere she could. I held my arms to her shoulders. Her strength was unbelievable. She was never this strong. **

**Before she could get to neck, I gathered my strength and pushed. I then got my legs out and kicked her away. She stumbled, but then got her balanced and charged at me again. I dodged her, got the table between us and pressed myself against the window. **

**"Mom just what the hell are you doing? Snap out of it." She didn't answer. She just stayed on the other side of the table, stalking me.**

**At that moment, a fist punched through the window and grabbed my shirt. I tried to push out of the way and my shirt ripped. Just in time because mom jumped over the table in the spot where I just was. I looked to see who grabbed me. Natalie was trying to push her through the window with her arm. **

**I swallowed. Natalie's arm had pieces of glass sticking out it and her arm was being ripped to shreds by the broken window. However, there was no blood spilling from her wounds; there was not pain on her face either. She was very determined to get inside even if it killed her. What drove that much?**

**"Mom, Natalie, you two need to get a grip," I screamed. "I mean it."**

**They didn't listen. Natalie finally busted the window and was beginning to crawl through, completely ignoring the fact that her knees and legs were being lacerated and was leaving shreds of her skin on the window. When she stood up, both her and mom charged at me at the same time, both screaming at the top of their lungs. **

**I ran down the hallway and up the stairs. My family trailed right behind me. I tripped halfway up and my knee went straight into the edge of one step. I registered the numbness but the adrenaline kept me from feeling the pain. My legs flew up the stairs. When reached the top, I chanced a look over my shoulder. Mom and Natalie were struggling to get up the stairs first. No words were exhanged; just growling and a lot of pushing. Like they were dogs fighting over a piece of meat. **

**I ran into my room, slammed the door behind me, and pushed the dresser in front of it. I started pacing around the room, trying to figure out what to do. All the phone lines were busy, my mom and sister were insane, and it seemed like they were trying to eat me. **

_**No, I'm just in shock of what's happening. My family is not trying to eat me.**_

**I had to get out of here. Maybe if I got to the hospital, I could get someone to come here and find out what the hell is wrong with my family. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging at my door. I could her the growling and heavy breathing coming from the other side. It seemed like my family was determined to reach me. I panicked and looked around. I saw my autographed Louville slugger hanging in my closest. I moved for but stopped myself. What was I thinking? I could not fight my family, but only escape.**

**I put on my boots and opened my window. Maddie, who was under the bed, jumped out first. I climbed after him and made my way across the roof toward the drainpipe. It wasn't until I heard sirens going past my house again that I looked around. And then I realized that wasn't just my house of zombies. **

**Across the the street where Natalie had her slumber party, I saw that the rest of her friends were crouched on their knees in the front yard over what looked like one of the parents. They were actually pulling the adult's intestines out of the middle and eating them. I fought down the urge to throw up as I spotted someone running down the street. Then all of a sudden, he got hit by a car and flipped over the top. I thought for sure was dead. Then he suddenly started crawling to the other side of the street, both of his legs were limp and in odd angles. Even from the distance, I could see no pain on his face; however, it was concerted with blood. **

**I continued to stare at him until I heard gunshots coming from the other side of the street. I turned around and saw Mr. Henderson, my english teacher, neighbor, and friend, pointing a gun at someone. He was firing round after round at a woman who was slowly walking toward him, dragging a stump of where her foot once was. I saw the impact of the bullets and the woman's body jerk but did not see any blood. The woman didn't seem to notice and continued to walk towards him.**

**"Get back," I heard him scream. "Just stay back."**

**He fired three more shots at the woman before he finally aimed higher and fired a bullet into the woman skull. I saw her collapse, as if she was a puppet and her strings were cut. I saw the triumph on Mr. Hederson's face but he didn't notice that the gunshots had attracted others. I tried to shout a warning but the insane people got to him before I could say anything. I saw the horror and pain on his face as five people surround him and began to bite him. I heard him began to scream which then turned into the high pitch screech. I shut my eyes but could not block out the loud screaming that seemed as if Henderson was standing right beside. I kept my eyes shut as the screaming subsided and became a quiet gurgle as he began to choke on his on blood.**

**I think a started to realize what was going on. These people could not feel pain. They couldn't speak and the killed like animals. They were not insane or angry; they were dead. All those gunshots, the injuries. They were zombies. Just like in the horror movies I always watch. I know it was stupid but it was happening right before my eyes. **

**The dead was alive.**


	6. Escape From the House

11:01

**Zombies. The Living Dead. I could not believe it. I would not in my entire life would believe that something like this could happen. I seen the George A. Remeros movies, heard the campfire stories, and even played the Resident Evil games. I knew now what I have witnessed.**

**It just still seemed impossible. Zombies are suppose to be a belief of pure fiction. A made-up story to scare children. But how is possible that my mom just got up and chased me around the house with a gaping hole in her neck. Maybe I'm still asleep.**

**Before I could reassure myself, a loud crack resonated throughout my room and out the window. Mom and Natalie finally broke down the door. They were struggling to get over the broken pieces and were pushing past the dresser.**

**I jumped up and ran to the rain gutter. I only snuck out of the house a couple of times, so it was always scary to climb down the gutter. Taking a deep breath, I began to climb down just as Natalie and mom finally climbed through my window. I could hear them both snarling and schreeching as I hit the ground. I ran to the garage door and pressed the button to raise the door. It seemed to take forever to raise up. I glanced back up to the roof. Natalie and mom were at the edge of the roof, screeching at me, but staying put.**

**I decided to duck under the door as it was halfway done. When I reached my door, I heard a dull thud and a loud snap. I turned around and saw Natalie on the ground, a gleam of white bone petruding from her shin. Her right shin snapped in two when she hit the ground. She did not scream; however, she got up and limped her way to me as fast as she could. **

**Horrified, I got into my car and locked the door. I opened the glove compartment and grabbed my spare set of keys. My fingers fumbled to put the keys into the ignition. I finally got them in and started the engine just as Natalie reached my side of the car. She banged on the window with her fists, putting small cracks on the glass. **

**I jammed the gear into reverse and blasted out of the garage and into the street. When I was in the clear, I put the car in drive and then glanced at what was left of my family. Natalie was limping after me, the bone in her shin was completely broken. My mother was still on the roof, screeching as I was getting away. I tried to hold back tears as I floored my car down the street.**

**I checked my surroundings, dodging bodies that were no longer alive. Cars and people were littered on lawns and driveways. People were screaming as they were being eaten alive. Others, like Henderson, were fighting off the zombies with guns and even tire irons. It was futile. The Dead kept walking and even more people were being killed. It was like stepping into a horror movie. And I probably knew how it was going to end. **

**What could have caused this outbreak? Were there really genetic experiments being tested by the military for bio-weapons. Was this an accidental chemical spill and people were getting infected.**

**But then I remembered about the verse in the Book of Revalations. It has been written that the Lord would release his judgement upon the world and that the dead will rise to kill the living. Is that the case? Has the Lord judged us? Is there no more room in Hell and the damned are walking the earth?**

**A road block jolted me out of my thoughts. Two police cars were at the four-way stop sign at the end of my street. The police officers were out of their cars and firing towards a group of at least a dozen zombies. The zombies kept running, bullets plastering their bodies, but not slowing them down.**

**I pulled on the emergence brake and floored my car. My family once went to a car expo, where they were showing people how to do tricks. I did a u-turn and headed back down the street. I glanced in my rear view mirror. The zombies converged on the officers and began feeding. I could almost hear their screams.**

**My street was becoming worse as I headed back through. I tried to dodge as many bodies as I could, but I cold not help but to graze a couple of them. **

**It took ten minutes of manuvering the dead before I finally made it out of my suburb. The screaming, the gunshots, the snarling. These sounds alone are going to haunt me for as long as I live. People were being eaten alive in the streets and on front lawns. Many of the zombies dropped whatever piece of flesh they were eating and began to chase me. They gave up when they knew it was useless. Several others actually jumped on my car. I don't remember if I ran over any of them. **

**It was even worse in town when I arrived. Zombies were feeding on even more people than around my house. Bodies were strewn all over the road with organs torn out, limbs chewed off, or with missing heads. The streets were flooded with so much blood, it looked like it rained. There were even a couple of looters, somehow dodging all of the zombies and busting into stores. I saw one guy carry off a stereo system, only to be attacked by a couple of zombies. **

**THUMP! **

**"HELP!" came a voice to my right.**

**I jumped and looked to my passenger side window. A woman in pink pajamas was banging on my window, trying to keep up with my car. I didn't notice I was going slow. Her face was pale and one of her arms was bleeding badly. **

**"Help me, please!" she pleaded.**

**I stopped the car and unlocked the door. I wasn't about to leave her there in the middle of a massacre.**

**She opened the door and began to get in, a look of relief and gratitude on her face. But that face turned to horror as she was yanked back out of the car. She tried to grab the door but missed. I found out why. Three zombies grabbed her.**

**"NO!" she screamed as they dragged her out. I reached forward and grabbed onto her arms. **

**As I struggled to pull her back in, two more zombies joined the three and proceeded to pull her out. One of them grabbed her head and yanked. I heard a loud snap as her neck broke. She gasped and went limp. Her arm slipped through my hands as she was pulled throught the door.**

**I was stunned. She died right in front of me and I couldn't do anything to help her. **

**I snapped back to reality as another zombie tried to get through the door. I floored the pedal and blasted my way through the street. The zombie fell out of the door and rolled across the ground. I saw him get up and run after me as if nothing had happened.**

**I took a couple of deep breaths. I had to figure out a plan. Mom and Natalie were gone, so I had to go and find my dad at the golf course. It was a long shot, but I had to try.**

**Dad always went to the public course because it was cheaper than the clubs. So, I turned down a street that would take me through my high school and to the outskirts of the city. Hopefully, I could find some more survivors. **

**BAM!**

**I slammed on the bracks and jerked from the impact as bits of glass hit me in the face. A window in the back passenger side was cracked, but not shattered. My windows were reinforced. What did that?**

**"Get out of the car!" yelled a voice.**

**I turned around. A guy that looked like a postal worker was pointing a gun at me. **

**"I mean it!" he demanded. "Either get out or I blow your brains out!"**

**I was petrified. This guy was seriesously going to kill me. A new kind a fear was growing inside me. It was a littled different than getting eaten by zombies. **

**The postal guy seemed to realized that I couldn't move. He ran to the side of the car, lowering his gun to open the door. When he thought he had me, I floored the car and blew past him. The guy screamed and fired his gun at me. I could hear the the bullets hitting my trunk. I heard one of them hit my brake lights.**

_**What the hell was wrong with that guy?**_

**He was really considered killing somone who was alive. Not to help someone, but to save himself. I guess when it comes to it, it's a survival of the fittest.**

**I took a deep breath and waited for the adrenaline to leave my body. It felt like I was running on hormones all day long when it's only been half an hour. **

**Maybe the radio would have an explanation. I turned up the volume and switched it to the town's station. Nothing but static.**

**"Dammit." I turned the knob and switced to another station. Again static. "There has to be someone out there."**

**I looked up. I turned into a empty parking lot in front of small grocery store. There wasn't a zombie in sight, so I figured I could be safe for a few minutes. I turned back to the radio.**

**"Yes." I finally got something on the AM station.**

**"The National Guard has been deployed in all cities thoughout the state. There is no need for panic. As long as you stay indoors, there is no reason for you to be in danger."**

_**How freakin' stupid are these people? **_

**"Be calm everone. We estimate calm will be restored by the afternoon."**

_**I swear I'm going to kill this guy if I find him. He must be in a bomb shelter because it's Armaggedon out here.**_

**I switched off the station and rested my head on the steering wheel. I had to find my dad, but I felt so exhausted. I had to rest for a moment.**

**"AARRGH"**

**I jumped and whiplashed my head into the back of the seat. There was a woman zombie on my side of the car, trying to scratch through the glass. Her fingernails were bending back and were beginning to bleed. **

**The adrenaline flowed through my body once again, shaking me out of my stupor. I put the car in gear and tore through the parking lot, slightly grazing a parked car. I could see the woman running after my car in my side mirror.**

**I pulled back into the street and headed towards the high school.**


	7. A Friendly Face

**Okay, I had to recap. Zombies were here in my town and possibly all over the world. I don't know how, but its happening. **

**Zombies were dead creatures ressurected to life. They fed off anything alive. In the movies, they fed off brains or flesh and could sometimes even talk. But these zombies could only yell and screech, like they reverted to their animal instincts. Their sounds kind of reminded me of bat cries. But the fact of the matter is that even though they are dead, they can still be alive. **

**But there was something that I missed. In the games and movies, zombies were real slow creatures. They could easily be outmanuvered. But these zombies had the speed and agility of a track runner. I mean they could really move. They didn't even seem to tire.**

**Finally, if you get bitten by one, your dead. One hundred percent fatality. I had to keep my distance as best as I could.**

**It was just weird, though. When I was being chased by Mom and Natalie, I could have sworn they were still alive. They seemed to be breathing, thinking when they were chasing me. **

**My high school in a rural part of town. There's not much around the campus and the the building itself is surrounded by the sports fields. Footaball, baseball, and a soccer field that is surrounded by a track. So, it should be an ideal place to be since there wouldn't be many people at school on a Sunday. It was also on the way to the city golf course. **

**One the wa there, my car was attacked a couple of more times by what looked like a couple of hospital workers. They had on scrubs and were still wearing germ masks. But they were drenched in blood and were screaming in high pitched voirces, like they were dying. One of the workers had his arm chewed off.**

**My conclusion was correct as I saw the deserted grounds at my high school campus. But it was weird. Even if it was a Sunday, there would at least be a few people walking around the track or playing football. I turned into a drive that would take me to the dorms on the other side of the main building. Maybe there would be a few people alive barricaded in the building.**

**If they were staying safe, I had to at least try and help them. But when the parking lots came into view, I felt my body freeze. **

**The parking lot was littered with bodies and blood. There had to be dozens of them. Nobody seemed recognizable. Everybody was eaten to the bloody bone, so there was no way for reanimation. I guess they were trying to make to their cars or somewhere else. But where were the zombies that finished them?**

**I manuevered the car between the bodies and came to a stop in front of the dorms. Taking a deep breath, I opened my door. There was not a single noise. It was very quiet. I checked the first body I came to, hoping it wasn't someone I knew. Even though the face was gone, I recognized it was a girl. She was wearing our high school Vollyball shirts. **

**"What happened here?" I asked body.**

**After a few more minutes of looking for survivors, I gave up and went back to my car. Everyone was dead and I couldn't waste anymore time when my dad could be in danger. I did all I could.**

**I opened the car door and slid into the seat. Before I could start the car, something was rapidly hitting the passenger side of my car. I looked to my left and saw a figure on the other side.**

**"Let me in!" the stranger yelled.**

**It took a moment for me to adjust the glare from the window. When I did, I felt my jaw drop open as I recognized the figure.**

**It was Kevin.**

**I opened my passenger door, relieved that I found someone alive.**

**He got in and patted my shoulder. "Thanks dude, I owe you one." **

**"What the hell happened here?" I asked. How did he sneak up me?**

**He shrugged. "I don't really know. The last few hours have been a blur."**

**I smiled, glad he was okay. But then I got a look at his shirt. It was covered in blood. And his neck was too.**

**"No! Get out of my car. Now!"**

**He looked shocked. "Why?"**

**"You're bitten! Now get the hell out my car before you turn into one of them!"**

**"Turn into what?"**

**"A zombie!"**

**He scoffed. "I'm not going to into a zombie. This blood isn't mine. It's my roomate's."**

**"What?"**

**Kevin sighed. "This morning, my door busted opened and some guys came in, yelling at the top of their lungs and began jumping on Tim's bed."**

**"Your roomate?"**

**"Yeah. I thought it was the football team, still jazzed up from their win, so I rolled over and tried to rest. But then, Tim started screaming and woke me up. I looked over at him and two guys are just...eating him."**

**He began to whisper. His eyes were blank. "One guy was gnawing on Tim's arm and the other was actually trying to eat his stomach. They had to have been delirious. I jumped and went to go get some help, but one of them noticed me."**

**He closed his eyes and went on. "I didn't know who it was, but the dude chased me down the hallway. I went out the emergency exit, then turned around and waited for dude to come out beside the door. He came busting out of the door and I snuck back in before the door closed. Luckily, the door was locked from the outside. When I was in, I just realized that the floor was red with blood. It was actually flooding the hallway."**

**I was silent for few moments before asking, "then what?"**

**"Well, I went back to my room and saw that the other guy was gone. Tim was on the bed, trying to get up with his guts pulled out."**

**I felt my stomach flip-flop.**

**"I went over to him and tried to take him to the nurses' office, but he kept jerking around. I couldn't get a hold of him. He then collapsed and stopped moving. I went to go get help and was ambushed by the other guy. He tackled me to the floor, where I got this," Kevin said, raising his arms to show the blood on his shirt.**

**"I think this is crazy, but I think the guy was actually trying to eat me."**

**I shook my head. "You're not crazy, man. The guy was a zombie."**

**Kevin's eyes widened. "A what?"**

**"A zombie. I don't get it either, but zombies are real and it's not only here. They're all over town."**

**Kevin didn't talk for a moment. I guess he was trying to absorb this information, but he didn't really want to. I couldn't blame him. He then looked back at me and said, " I guess that explains it."**

**"What?"**

**He looked a little sick. "Well, I somehow got the guy off me and looked for a way to defend myself. I grabbed a fire extinguisher of the wall and swung it at him. I hit his head and just, well, dropped and didn't get up. When checked to see if he was still alive, a piece of his skull fell off."**

**I nearly threw up. Kevin actually killed on of them! My best friend actually killed a human being. Well, the guy was actually dead, but still, he was once alive.**

**"Are you okay?" Kevin asked. **

**I swallowed. "Yeah, I'm alright. I'm just glad your alive."**

**"Yeah, me too." He then looked puzzled. " Where is you family."**

**I looked away and closed my eyes. My body still hadn't recovered from the shock of losing them. Kevin guessed what happened.**

**"I'm sorry," he told me.**

**I fought the urge not cry. I snapped my head back up. "We've got the to find my dad. He went to the golf course and the phone lines are dead so I can't reach the golf course. I'm heading there now."**

**Kevin nodded. "I'll help you out."**

**"Thanks."**

**I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, just as two zombies busted through the dormitory doors. I noticed Kevin watch them as I floored it down the street.**

**"It's Erica and George."**

**"Who?" I asked.**

**"The dorm leaders in the floor above mine. They were always nice to me. They helped the teachers watch over me when the moved me into the dorms."**

**I looked at them in the rearview mirror as I made my way up the street. Erica's blond hair had been ripped out in several places and even had had her nose and her left ear bitten off. As she ran after us, she had a limp because her shin was broken. I could see the bone poking out of her skin. George was worse. It looked like his entire face had been chewed off. I could see the white bone of his skull through the bloody mess of what was once his face. His stomach had been ripped out and some pieces of his small intestines were still in place, hanging from his gut and being dragged along the pavement has he ran after my car. **

**I put a little more extra gas into my car and we speed down the street. I aimed the car west towards the golf course. Hopefully, there will be less zombies up there.**

**I still couldn't shake the though from my head. Kevin actually killed a zombie. I know they guy was dead before Kevin swung that extinguisher, but that guy was once alive. Talking, thinking, feeling. He probably didn't have any idea what was happening to him before it was too late.**

**When that decision came before me, will I be able to do the same? Will I do what is necessary to save my own life? No, probably not. I had problems when dad took me duck hunting a couple of years ago. I was an okay shooter, with skeet shooting. But I felt my finger freeze everytime a duck came into my sights. I belive its another reason why dad thinks of me as a chicken.**

**But my dad could be alive out there. If there was a hope of finding him, I had to try. **


	8. Finding Shelter

11:39

**We encountered three more attacks before we got to the golf course. There was no one at the gate, but I didn't expect for someone to be there. And unlike the town, the course was completely desereted. The road that lead to the clubhouse went around a couple of holes, but I didn't see anyone playing.**

**I spotted my dad's car as we entered the stadium-sized parking lot. It was parked near the front. I did a sweep of the parking lot, looking for signs of activity. **

**"Where is he at?" I asked.**

**Kevin shook his head. "I don't know. We practically drove through the course to get here and I didn't see anybody on any of the holes."**

**I glanced at the clubhouse. "Do you think he could be in there?"**

**" He could be," said Kevin. **

**I parked the car next to my dad's and we both slowly made our way to the front door of the club. My dad's car was the only one in the parking lot, but I did see the owner's corvette as we pulled in. It was parked on the over side of the clubhouse. There were also no signs of bodies or even a struggle in the parking lot.**

**Even though it was a public course, it had the fancys of a rich-type country club. It had a restraunt, a pool, locker rooms, a bar lounge, dance room, equipment store, and even a small daycare.**

**I reached the door first. I looked at Kevin and he slowly nodded. I tood a deep breath and pulled the handle on the glass door.**

**We entered into the restraunt part of the club. I braced for the worse, but didn't have too. It was as deserted as the course. All the tables were empty of customers. The were no sounds coming from the kitchen or the bar, which was unusuaul because the TV is alway blaring the Sunday's football game. But I guess under the circumstances, the game was probably cancelled. **

**"Hello? Anybody here?" I called out.**

**Kevin hit me on the shoulder. "Shut the hell up! There could be zombies here," he whispered.**

**"It's deserted, alright?" I shot back. I began to weave my through the resturuant. With a groan, Kevin followed.**

**We checked the restraunt, the bar, the pool, and even the garage where they kept the golf carts. We did could not find anyone alive or dead. Not even a single blood drop. **

**"Okay, it's Sunday, and the golf course is completely empty," I pointed out. "Where is everybody? Where's my dad?"**

**Kevin shrugged. "Maybe the took somebody else's car and went to find someplace safe. Or if everybody's a zombie, then went to town for something to eat."**

**I felt sick. It was true but it didn't feel right to think about it like that.**

**"We don't know if there were any zombies here. We don't know if there was anyone alive here so let's not jump to conclusions."**

**"Let's just get out of here," Kevin suggested. "Maybe your dad went back to the house to see if you and your family is safe."**

**I nodded. We made our way to the door. My father may have not cared about me that much but he did love my mom and my sister. I just hoped I got there before he did. Dad didn't want to see what happened.**

**We almost reached the door when I heard a loud thump from the back. We jumped about two feet into the air. After a minute of waiting, there was another, less loud, bump.**

**"What's back there?" Kevin asked.**

**"The locker rooms. We didn't check back there."**

**Slowly, we made our to the back. My heart was pounding in my chest as I saw Kevin pick up a iron from one of the racks and held it like a sword. I started to object when I realized that probably was a good idea. But I didn't grab anything. **

**As we neared the room, I could hear what sounded like squishing from inside. I had a feeling what was inside, but didn't want to believe it. The door to the locker room was open. The noieses became louder when we got closer. Gathering my courage, I looked peeked around the corner.**

**There were four zombies in the room, all crouched over a completely gutless body. One zombie, the bartender, was reaching down the throat of the victim and was pulling out his esophagus. Two of them, a waitress who said I was cute and the caretaker of the greens, were snarling at each other of who would finish the rest of the victim's intestines. The last zombie had his back to us, but I saw that he was gnawing on the victim's decapitated leg. The copper smell of blood was heavy in the air. I struggled not to throw up.**

**The second I gagged, all four of them whipped their heads in our direction. Through the blood, I recognized the zombie who was gnawing on the leg.**

**It was my dad. The man who has taken care of me all my life was now dead. Just like mom and Natalie.**

**I froze, but the zombies jumped up and ran toward us. Kevin did not freeze, either. He pushed me out of the way and swung the iron at the closest zombie, the caretaker. I heard his head crunch under the impact and the wall beside us was splattered with blood. The caretaker fell to the floor, twitching.**

**"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Kevin screamed. He grabbed my shirt and dragged me into the hall.**

**I snapped out of my daze and tore down the hallway with Kevin right behind me. We ran through the hallway and out of the resturaunt. Kevin reached the doors first. I was next and closed the doors behind us.**

**But then I saw the patio chairs around the club. Getting the idea, I grabbed one of the chairs and propped it against the door. The waitress and bartender slammed into the door, yelling and snarling. The door held, but it cracked. I ran back to the car. I heard a shatter of glass and something grabbed my ankle. One of the zombies had my foot, but I couldn't see who. Reacting on instinct, I stepped on the hand with my other foot. The pressure of my foot on the hand made it sliced through the broken glass still attached to the door. The hand gave on twitch then stopped. I heard a zombie howl in frustration, but not pain.**

**I ran back to the car. We got in and got out of there. In the mirror, I saw that the door was still holding them in.**

**3:45 P.M.**

**I didn't say anything the while we were driving down the road. Neither one of us didn't exactly have a plan on what we were going to do, so I just circled the city a couple of times. We didn't meet any zombies or anyone alive during the time.**

**My family was dead. The only family I had was gone. I was completely alone. The only thing that represented my family were the souless, undead imposteres that stole my family's bodies. **

**"David...," Kevin started.**

**"No, I don't wnt to talk about it, alright."**

**He looked back at the road. "I know it seems like the end of the world, and even though it probably is, you could not stop this from happening."**

**I remained silent. So he continued.**

**"Take it from someone who has lost their family. The pain may be hard to deal with at first, but it will get better with time. They only thing you can do now is move on with what you have."**

**I slammed on the brakes and Kevin's head bounced off the dashboard.**

**"Just what am I supposed to deal with?" I yelled. "My family was all I have left! The world has become overrun with flesh-eating zombies, we're pretty much the only ones left alive in the entire city, and we have no clue on what the hell we're supposed to do. I mean, how are things supposed to get better! **

**He rubbed knot on his head. "I don't know, just continue to survive until help arrives."**

**I laughed. "Look around. Humankind is dead. If it's like this here, it's the same everywhere. Help is a long way away."**

**Kevin scowled at me. "Look, I'm just trying to help."**

**"Well don't."**

**I suddenly got out and slammed the door. I needed some air and time to think about our next move. Being in that car wasn't going to help **

**I looked around and then realized that we were in front of a Phillips Sixty-Six. I did a three-sixty turn, checking the streets. There was not a single zombie in the area. But the street was littered with abandoned cars. **

**I walked in, not caring if there were any zombies there. The door made a loud, beep noise when I opened it. Nobody dead or alive didn't come to greet me. I went immediately for the sodas. I pulled one from the rack and jugged it down, ignoring the pains in my throat from the fizz and acid. When I was done, I grabbed another one. **

**Kevin walked in and then barricaded the door by wrapping a bungee cord he got from the shelves around the handles. He pushed the doors, testing the lock.**

**"Might as well camp here for the night. Probably safer than anywhere else," he told me as he tore open a bag of Doritioes.**

**I nodded. We were in a place with lots of food, baricaded windows, and reinforced glass doors. Where else was there a place safer?**

**The eriee silence was getting me the creeps. It was weird. This place looked completely untouched. If the apacolypse was happening, a least somepeople would tear this place up for supplies.**

**Then I got a bad feeling. Neither one of us noticed that there was blood on the floor next to the counter when we walked in. I also didn't notice that I walked through the pool and I was leaving footprints all over the store. **

**Kevin grabbed a flyswatter from the rack and pushed the plastic across the puddle.**

**"It's at least a few hours old. It's beginning to dry."**

**"But were did it come from?" I asked.**

**I answered my own question. The blood seemed to be leaking from underneath the counter. I went around the counter to see what it was. I felt my blood go cold when I looked down. **

**There was the body of the clerk, his throat was ripped out. Ther was also several bite marks on his head. The nametag said his name was Barry. He barely looke eighteen years old. I turned to Kevin.**

**"Do you think whoever did is still here?" he asked.**

**"Maybe," I said.**

**"Where do you thin-"**

**I heard something. "Shut up! Listen."**

**He kept quite. Then he heard what I did. There was something growling from the back of the store. In the janitor's closet.**

**We moved forward, taking cautious steps. Kevin grabbed a mop handle and I grabbed a rubber mallet from the racks. We had no idea what we were going to do but we wanted to be armed just in case. As we got closer, I could hear the growling intensify.**

**"Open the door and I'll take car of it," I said. Though, I didn't think I could do it.**

**Kevin positioned himself by the side of the door so he could open it and then swing the handle into what was in there.**

**He put his hand on the door handle and looked at me. I took a deep breath, raised the mallet over my head, and nodded.**

**Keving opened the door. The creature inside leapt out of the dard. Kevin swung the mop, but missed. **

**The creature jumped at me in a blaze of teeth and knocked me against the ground. It then pinned me to the floor and snarled.**

**I closed my eyes and waited for the worst**


	9. Finding an ally

4:26 P.M.

**It seemed forever for the zombie to bite me. I could feel it's hot breath against my face. The pressure of it laying on top of me prevented me from breathing. I didn't want to see my death so I kept my eyes closed. **

**Then I heard Kevin laughing so I opened my eyes. A giant German Shepard was standing on my chest, its teeth bared in a growl.**

**"Hi, boy," my voice shaked. I reached up and gently petted the dog. "Nice doggy." It immediately dropped its aggresivness and licked me in the face.**

**I pushed it away. "Okay, okay, I'm glad to meet you too." I got up and brushed the dog hair off my shirt. Kevin was still laughing at me. "Well, at least we know nothing else is here. This dog would have been eaten."**

**Kevin frowned. "Yeah, but we don't know if zombies will eat animals." **

**I nodded. But if this dog killed a zombie, woutldn't it turn into one itself?**

**But then I heard something. It sounded like heavy breathing from inside the closest. I took the mallet and looked back inside the closet again. I recoiled when I saw what it was.**

**There was a girl in there. She was crouched against the wall, her head on her knees. Her blond hair covered her face. **

**"Kevin! There's someone in here," I yelled. I ran kneeled down to check and see if she was alright. She had no injuries that I could see. I lifted her chin up. She just had a blank expression on her face, breathing like every breath was her last.**

**Kevin came in. "I think she's in shock," he said. He looked her in the eyes. "Hello?"**

**I shook her shoulder. "Are you alright?"**

**She blinked and looked at us. Then she started screaming. **

**"Hey, calm down!" I yelled over her screeching.**

**She didn't listen. Just jumped up and bolted out of the closet. We foll0wed and caught her at the door.**

**"Hey!" I grabbed her shoulders and Kevin put his hand over her mouth. "Knock it off!"**

**Her muffled screams slowly deceased and focused her eyes on us. We let her go and stood back. She was our age, blond, green eyes, and athletic build. But her eyes had dark shadows underneath them and her skin had a gray tinge; she was still wearing what she slept in and looked like she hadn't slept all night.**

**I never seen her before. Kevin and I knew everybody at the high school.**

**"Who are you?" I asked.**

**She tried to move her mouth, like talking was new to her. "D...Diane," she whispered. "Diane Carter."**

**"I'm David Peterson and this is Kevin Bradford." It seemed a little weird to be having introductions at a time like this.**

**"This is a small town. How come I never seen you around before?" Kevin asked.**

**She was silent for a few seconds before she answered, "I came from Sheldon," she whispered.**

**"Sheldon? That's thirty miles away. How did you end up here?" I asked. **

**Her face suddenly became horrified and her body began to shake. She took a couple of deep breaths and started to tell what happened. While she explained, I could understand why she was scared.**

**"I can barely remember. It all just seemed like a big blur." She shook her head. "I live with my dad in Sheldon. Late last night, the doorbell rung and my dad answered the door. There was a man at the door, staggering around like he was drunk. I was standing on the stairs and dad told me to call the police. So I picked up the phone and dialed. But then my dad yelled and pushed the man out the door. I ran toward him and tried to find out what was wrong. There was a huge gash in his neck."**

**I felt my throat tighten. It reminded me what happened to me and my mom.**

**"Dad told me the guy bit him. I nearly passed out, because there was gushes of blood coming from his neck." She began to whisper now. "I tried to get him in the car so we could go to the hospital, but I spent a lot of time trying to get him into the car so he lost a lot of blood. We pulled out of the garage and made it halfway down the street before..."**

**She sobbed and shuddered. "My father, in blind pain, jumped out of the car. I stopped and went to go get him. But..." tears were forming at her eyes, "he just got up and walked towards me, like nothing had happened. It didn't take me long to see that his neck was...broken."**

**Diane put her face in her hands. "His head was hanging like it didn't have a spined attached to it, but he could still walk. He walked towards me, reaching out his hands. But I couldn't help him. I was so scared, I just went back to my car and left."**

**"It took me awhile to realize that I was here. I just toned out of reality. I ran into this store and tried to find somebody who could help me. But the clerk behind the counter was acting weird. He lunged at me and tried to harass me. But Champ pulled him off. After that, I ran into that closet."**

**We were silent for a few minutes. I never thought we would find another survivor, and one's whose story is just as horrible as ours.**

**I finally spoke. "Why did you bring your dog?"**

**Diane sniffed. "I always bring him."**

**I guess it was the dog that killed the clerk. I suddenly smiled. "You know, your dog nearly turned me into a chew bone too."**

**Kevin laughed again and Diane smiled a little, patting her dog on the head.**

**"Champ can be a little overprotective sometimes," she told us. Champ barked in agreement. I think.**

**"Well I'm just glad we found someone else alive. We thought we were the only survivors," I said.**

**Diane nodded. Then looked distressed. "Just what is going on? Why are people acting so strange?"**

**Kevin shrugged. "We have only a shrewed idea. Apparently, everybody has turned into zombies."**

**Diane just gaped at him. "Zombies? Are you serious?"**

**I was confused. I thought it would be obvious. "Yeah. Zombies."**

**Diane just shoke her head. "I think you guys have watched to much TV. Zombies are not real."**

**"Listen you smart-ass," Kevin threatened. "Zombies are real. That's how daddy was able to stand back up. He was getting up to eat you."**

**Kevin crossed the line with that one. I punched him the shoulder.**

**"What?" he demanded.**

**"That went to far," I said.**

**I turned back to Diane. What color was in her face drained away. She looked down at her feet and began to cry again.**

**"Look, I'm sorry for what happened to your dad," I said gently. "But were just the same." We explained our stories. When we were done, Diane was speechless.**

**"I had no idea."**

**I said, "Don't worry about it. The important thing now is to stay safe until help arrives." **

**We spent the rest of the day digging out items we could use as weapons and finding something comfortable to sleep on. We tried to avoid the counter, where the clerk was. But there might be something important back there. Sucking in a deep breath, I went behind the counter and began searching. The clerk didn't store any weapons, but I did find something useful.**

**"Hey guys," I called out. "I found a television."**

**Kevin and Diane hurried from the back room with bubble rap that are used to wrap the store lights in. I placed the tv on the counter and turned on the power. All I got was static. Diane found a pair of rabbit ears from inside a drawer. I plugged them and made some adjustments. **

**The first channel was six and all it had was the emergency broadcast on. I switched it to eight. There was a reporter with a police officer on the screen. The caption at the bottom said they were reporting from a town in Wyoming.**

**"Reports are coming in from every city in the world that people are being attacked and killed from what seemed to be rioters from yesterday. As strange as it sounds, there have been reports from certain cities that these people are dead. Right here with us is Sergeant Grimes of the Creek County police department."**

**The camera focused on the officer. He looked exhausted. He even had a couple of gashes in his face. "Look, we don't know if these people are dead or alive. The point is that these people, these zombies or whatever, are killing everybody they come in contact with. The can't seem to reason or even understand speech. They also seemed to be high on something because we cannot slow them down with mace, clubs, or even bullets. The only weakness they have is the head. Any major trauma to the head will make them go down." He then looked nervous. "Just like zombies."**

**The camera went back to the reporter. "How is the situation here?"**

**The officer lowered his eyes. "We had to terminate a lot of people here today who were 'dead'. But the situation is becoming under control here though. The problem is, I recognize some of these people. It's hard shoot someone because one person who was 'dead' was an officer. And another was the mayor's wife. And a couple of hours ago, I had to eliminate kids I gave a seminar to the other day about drugs. It was one of the hardest things to do." The officer looked back at the camera. "We even lost a couple of officers because they couldn't-"**

**I turned off the tv. I didn't need to hear anymore. The others looked like they were about to faint. I walked over to the door and stared out at the setting sun.**

**"Okay, just what are we supposed to do now," I asked Kevin and Diane.**

**They didn't say anything. **

**"I mean, how are we going to survive? There are outbreaks in every city and nobody can do anything to stop it. Those cops on tv seemed to have a handle on things but what about everyone else?"**

**Kevin walked up. "Look, let's not worry about it. It's late and we can't think clearly if can't get any sleep.**

**I looked back outside. It was getting late and we did have a long day.**

**"Alright, let's get some rest. Diane, are you going to...?"**

**Diane was asleep on the floor on top of the bubble wrap with Champ was right beside her. She was even beginning to snore.**

**"I guess she hasn't slept in awhile," Kevin pointed out.**

**I yawned. "Kevin, you better get some sleep. I'll stand guard."**

**He looked at me. "Are you sure?"**

**"Yeah, I'm sure." At least I think I was.**

**"Okay." Kevin unrolled a couple of tarps. When he hit the floor, he was asleep instantly.**

**I found the light switches and turned them off. Then I found took a swallow of another soda and a energy pill to keep me up. I grabbed the mallet I used earlier and found the softest spot on the floor. The sounds of my friends snores were sort of comforting against the silence. **

**I just hoped that the night of horror was over.**


	10. Long Night

October 16, 2:38 A.M.

**It was a long night. I stayed for hours, listening for any sign that there might be a zombie breaking in. There wasn't any, but sometimes, I was startled by the screech of a zombie from a couple of blocks away.**

**I didn't exactly fall asleep, but I did doze off for a couple of minutes. You know, the point of where you almost drift of to dreaming, but then you snap back to reality. I tried to get up and shake off the numbness. Then I realized what brought me back from my doze. I heard some kind of rustling sound. Something was moving in the store. I could feel the vibrations in the floor. **

**"Hey guys," I called out. "We got company."**

**I flipped on the light switches and Diane, Kevin, and Champ bolted straight up. I grabbed my mallet, Kevin grabbed his mop handle, and Diane grapped a kitchen knife from the drawer. We checked the store. After the second search, my friends each gave me a dirty look. Even Champ look disgusted.**

**"David, just why the hell did you wake us up for again?" Kevin snapped.**

**I was puzzled. "I swear I heard something."**

**Diane was the only one who had the closest expression of a concerned look. "Are you sure? Maybe one of us needs to stand guard. You know, Champ is an excellent guard dog."**

**I looked at Champ, who just wagged his tail. I looked back at Diane. "No offense, but I prefer if one of us standing guard was human so we could understand what we were hearing instead of barking at every sound."**

**Kevin grimaced. "And you are doing...what?**

**"Look! I heard something, all right?" I yelled. "And if you can't believe that, you both could just-"**

**THUMP!!**

**All of us jumped at the same time. I looked over my shoulder. The sound came from behind the counter. **

**"Did any of us check behind there?" I asked. They both shook their heads.**

**I swallowed and inched my way forward toward the counter with Kevin behind me and Diane behind him. My heart was a jackhammer. When I got behind the counter, the body of the store clerk was still there. He didn't seem to have moved from the spot from where Kevin and I found him. I went on the left side of the body and Kevin on the right. Diane stayed behind the counter. I kicked the body and it didn't move.**

**I looked at Kevin. "Well, maybe I do need to ge-AAARRGGGHHH!"**

**The clerk lunged forward and grabbed my leg. Adrenaline pumped into my body as I kicked the clerk has hard as I could. I heard his arm snap from the impact and it went limp. But then the clerk reached over with his other arm and grabbed again. I kicked again and Kevin whacked with the handle, but the zombie would not let go.**

**I heard another snap and Kevin's mop handle broke off. While still fighting with the zombie, I saw Kevin look at the handle like it was an answer to a math question. Then, he let out a loud yell and plunged the handle into the zombie's head, the handle entered the eyeball and into the brain. I heard a wet, squish and the zombie stopped moving. Pieces of the brain were coming out of the eyeball.**

**Diane gasped and walked away with her hand over her mouth. I also found myself wanting to throw up. **

**Kevin, however, looked at the zombie and said, "bite me."**

**I looked at him. "How can you do that and not feel any remorse?"**

**Diane recovered enough to say, "Yeah, I mean that man was alive."**

**"He was not alive. He was dead before I killed him," he said quietly, avoiding our gaze. " I mean look at him. His throat is torn out."**

**"Whether he was dead or not, that was a human being," I pointed out.**

**He suddenly whirled around and pushed me. I flipped over the countertop and landed on the floor next to the doors. The breath was knocked out of me and pain wracked up my side. I got up as Kevin went around the counter and pushed me against the glass doors. Diane stood back, horrified.**

**"Listen David. Everyone is dead. Get that through your skull," he explained .**

**"Guys...," Diane whispered.**

**"Even though these things are dead, they're up walking around, wanting your blood."**

**"Hey guys..." Diane repeated.**

**"They have already killed everyone you loved. You're not just going to stand by and let them kill others, are you?"**

**"Now's not the time to..."**

**David ignored her. "You need to get tough and stop acting like a pansy. These things will not hesitate to kill you or-"  
"Hey!" Diane yelled.**

**"What?" Kevin snapped.**

**Diane had a pale look on her face. She didn't say anything; she just pointed behind us.  
I was still pinned by Kevin so I couldn't see. But Kevin looked over my shoulder. His face went was as pale as Diane's. He let me go and backed away from me. I spun around.**

**There were about a dozen zombies outside of the store, just staring at us. I looked out the window and there half a dozen more, surrounding us. When I moved away, the all charged staight into the door. Luckily the doors and window held. However, the glass begun to crack. We backed up.**

**"Those doors are not going to hold. Was there a back door?" I asked Diane.**

**"Yeah. But how are we going to your car?"**

**"My car? What about yours?"**

**She looked guilty. "Out of gas. Why do you think I'm at a gas station?"**

**Kevin groaned. "Look. We need to get out of here before we're roadkill." He started pacing. Kevin was always the best a figuring solutions for problems. "Alright. I run out the back door, go around the front, and distract them. You two, get to David's car and get it started."**

**Diane yelled, " Are you crazy? You'll be killed."**

**Kevin just laughed. "Nah, I am a basketball player. No one in the league has been able to catch me."**

**I nodded. "It's all we have. We'll give you three minutes."**

**"Okay." He walked to the back. "Wish me luck."**

**I heard the back door slowly open, then close. We waited for a couple of minutes. I tried not to think about what would happen if he did get caught. But he was right. Nobody could catch him on the court.**

**Then we heard him yell, "Come on! Why don't you take a bite out my ass!" All the zombies turned and ran to the west side of the store.**

**"Let's go," I said and unwrapped the the bungee cord from the door handles.**

**After a sweep glance around the parking lot, we ran out to my car. I got behind the wheel and Diane opened the passenger door. Champ came in first, then she did. I got my keys out of my pocket and started the engine. But as I pulled the car around, the low fuel light went on.**

**"Dammit!"**

**Diane looked around. "What?"**

**"We're out of gas, too!"**

**"What?" she asked horrified. "How could you be so stupid?"**

**"Just shut up!" I yelled. Listen, you need to go inside the station and turn the hose on. There is a electric pad that turns on the hoses."**

**"How will I know which one?" **

**I looked over my shoulder. "Four."**

**She hesitated at first. "Alright. Champ, stay."**

**Diane go out of the car, running towards the counter. I pulled the car next to pump four and got out, putting the nuzzle hose into the gas can. I saw Diane through the window. She stepped over the clerk and went to the gas board. I didn't see anything at first, but then the numbers on the gas pump went to zero. I sighed and gave a thumb-ups to Diane. She hurried the back outside and got back into the car.**

**The numbers slowly ticked by. It seemed forever for the tank to fill up. I had three quarters of a tank when I saw Kevin running from down the block with the zombies on his tail. When he saw me pumping gas into the car, he opened his mouth and said something I couldn't hear, but I thought I heard the words 'shit' and 'brains'. In spite of the situation, I smiled.**

**"Let's go," I yelled. I dropped the nuzzle. It it the ground with a clang and continued to pump gas out. **

**I got back into the driver's seat and started the engine. Kevin caught up and jumped throught the open window in the backseat.**

**"Drive, you moron!" he yelled.**

**"Watch this," I told everybody. I stepped on the gas, pulled on the emergency brake handle and pulled a 180 in the parking lot. The same trick I did in my street yesterday. We drove out of the parking lot and was home free. The zombies, however, continued the pursue us. **

**But before we got out of the lot, Kevin reached forward and pulled the cigarrete lighter from the dashboard. He threw it out the window. After a momen, I saw the lighter ignite the gas from the nozzle in my rearview. The zombies reached the pump as the fire traveled into the gas lines. As we pulled onto the road, a tremendous explosion rocked the area. I felt the car vibrate from the shockwave. Pieces of metal and dead flew around us.**

**As Kevin looked back, I heard him say, "burn baby burn."**


	11. My Old House

Ch. 9

3:35 A.M

**We drove around the city for about half an hour. We were still tired and needed a place to rest. I didn't even realized where we were going. I just drove.**

**"Maybe we should try and find another gas station to stay at," Diane suggested.**

**Kevin shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know where the zombies are gathered at in the city." He looked outside his window at the passing houses. "We need to find a place that we know is safe. At least until daylight."**

**"What about one of your houses?" Diane asked us. **

**"I live on the high school campus. And I know the place is overruned with them." Kevin told her.**

**I made a left turn. "I'm pretty sure that my family is still at my house," I said.**

**"How do you know that?" Kevin asked.**

**I suddenly realized which street I drove the car in. I didn't even notice I turned down this street. "I don't know." I pushed the brakes and looked out my window. "How do you think it looks?"**

**I stopped in front of my house. Maybe in was instinct or intuition, but we ended up where I grew up. It seemed like I never left. **

** The street looked completely deserted, completely different from the carnage from only a few hours ago. But I didn't want to take any chances. There were still several bodies strewn over various lawns.**

**Kevin, however, jumped out as soon as I put the car in park. Diane and Champ followed out after him.**

**"Hey," I yelled after I got out and followed them. "Are you two sure about this?"**

**They didn't listen. Kevin went to the front door. He grabbed the door handle and put his ear to the door. "We don't know until we try."**

**He slowly opened the door and peered in. After a moment, he opened the door wider and walked in. Diane followed along with Champ. I took a deep breath and walked in after them. **

**The hallway was dark and quiet as we walked through it towards the living room. It felt like I've been away from for months when it has only been ten hours. It seemed unfamiliar. Kevin was poking around through the hall closet and Diane collapsed on the couch in the living room. Champ settled down at her feet. **

**I walked past them and into the kitchen. On instinct, I flipped the lights on. There was still a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, dry and sticky. Along with Mom and Natalie's bloody footprints. **

**Keving hurried into the room and turned the lights off. "Do you want to signal them here? If they see th-" he stopped and turned the light back on. He saw the blood on the floor.**

**He was quiet for a while before he asked, "whose is it?"**

**"Mom's," I whispered.**

**Kevin sighed and turned the light back off. I could tell he was hurting just as much as me. My mother was pretty much Kevin's mother. She would let him stay at my house on some weekends and always invited him over to baby-sit Natalie when I had to go away. She would call at least once a week to check on him to see if he was okay.**

**Kevin walked back into the living with me right behind him. I looked at the clock that was hanging above the couch. It would be a few hours until dawn. **

**I looked down at myself and realized I had on the same thing I went to bed in last night. It still had my mom's blood still on it. I never noticed. Kevin's clothes had his roomate's blood on it and Diane still had on her house shoes and was wearing only a pair of shorts and her high school t-shirt.**

**"Maybe we should change clothes," I suggested. Everybody nodded. "Diane, your about the same size as my mom so you could propably fit into her clothes. My parents room is upstairs on the left."**

**She nodded and went upstairs with Champ at her heels.**

**Kevin followed me upstairs and into my room. We climbed over the wreckage that was once my door. My window was still open. Maddie wasn't anywhere to be seen. I sighed and dug through my closet for a pair of sweats and sweatshirt for Kevin**

**"Be careful with that," I mentioned at the sweatshirt. "It was signed by The Rock."**

**"From when? Five years ago," he asked as he pulled the shirt up to his nose. "Because it smells like it."**

**I threw a pair of running shoes at him. He laughed as he sat on my bed and laced them up.**

**My clothes from the other day were still on the floor so I just putted those on. I laced up my boots and we headed back downstairs; Kevin picked up my Lousiville slugger off the floor and put it on his shoulder. I didn't object. He would do with better than I would.**

**"Did you dad ever have a gun?" Kevin asked as we walked back downstairs.**

**"Our guns are at shop, getting cleaned. Ironic, huh?"**

**"Yeah." **

**Diane was on the couch in my mom's jeans with her old college hoodie and a pair of tennis shoes. I swallowed because I could still smell my mom's perfume on them.**

**She looked up at us. "So what do we do now?"**

**"I think we should get some rest. We can't run away if were exhausted," I suggested.**

**I got some blankets out of the hallway closet. "I think it would safer for all of us if we slept in the living room."**

**Kevin took an aphgan and seated himself in the recliner. Diane crashed on the couch. I was going to mention that the couch could fold out into a bed but she was already asleep. With nowhere else comfortable to lay down, I settled myself on the floor. I was about to ask if anyone wanted to stand guard, but I think we were safe enough. I exhaled and closed my eyes, wishing Maddie was sleeping at my feet. **

**10:26 A.M.**

**I woke up to Champ growling. I snapped up and looked at the clock. It was morning. The sunlight was peeking through the windows.**

**"Hey," I whispered to Kevin and Diane. "Something's wrong."**

**They both got up and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. **

**"Whazz goin on?" Diane asked.**

**"Champ's acting jumpy," I told her.**

**Diane and Kevin both were wide awake now. They put on their shoes and got ready to run. **

**But I stopped. "Maybe we should see what it is first?" I suggested.**

**Kevin nodded. "Maybe its nothing and we're-"**

**We all heard it at the same time. A tinkling of glass was coming from one of the rooms. The only brocken glass was in the dining room. I gave a 'wait here' look and slowly walked towards the dining room. I could feel the adrenaline pumping into my body as I went to the kitchen. **

**As I got closer, I could hear the glass from the broken window Natalie broke. I swallowed and peeked around the corner into the dining room.**

**My mom was crawling through the window. **

**But it wasn't the same mom from yesterday. Her bathrobe was covered in dried blood and pieces of flesh. Her mouth was even worse. The blood had dried around her mouth and had turned almost black. What was even more disgusting, the left corner of her mouth was gone. Like she tried to shove something big into her mouth and the side stretched out. Her fingernails were chipped and I even noticed that a few were missing. The bite mark on her neck had maggots hatching. I heaved.**

**Her head snapped around and looked towards the kitchen. I was quicker and moved out of the way before she could see me. I held my breath, waiting. I could feel her footsteps through the wall as she was searching for what made the sound. She suddenly stopped. I could her a faint snuffling noise and could not make out what it was. I dared myself another look to see what she was doing. As I peeked around the corner again, I could see her actually sniffing the air. She was actually trying to sniff me out. I thought it was impossible because she was dead until she took a big whiff and whirled around to see me at the doorway in the kitchen.**

**She let out an inhuman shriek and ran straight towards me. I backed away and stuck out my leg. She tripped over it and went flying through the air until she crashed through the kitchen table. I could hear a snap through the broken wood but didn't hesitate to find out what it was. I ran back into the living room. Everybody with horrified looks as they saw my mom fly through the air through the doorway. **

**"MOVE!" I yelled.**

**We bolted for the door and ran out into the front yard to my car. I was the last one out the door. I thought we would make it until I felt a strong hand lift me off my feet and slammed me into the ground. Through the stars, I could make out Mr. Henderson, my neighbor. But not the same man I knew. His face, like mom's, was caked with dried blood. He was only gripping me with one arm because his other one had been chewed off. **

**He was only a few inches from my face, his breath was reeking of death and I could actually see pieces of flesh in his teeth I braced myself for end and closed my eyes. There was a crack and with a loud snarl, he fell to the ground beside me and stayed there. I looked up and saw Kevin my Lousiville slugger in his hands.**

**"Now we're even," he said, reaching out his hand.**

**"Fair deal," I said, grabbing it.**

**He pulled me up and we ran to my car. Diane and Champ already inside. I started the car and pulled onto the street. I never did look back.**

**Diane gave a sorrowful look. "Was that your mother inside the house?"**

**I swallowed and nodded. It felt like I lost my family all over again. **

**I then told my friends what I saw in my house. They each had a look of surprise.**

**"She was actually heard and was trying to smell you?" Kevin asked, shocked.**

**I nodded.**

**"How is that possible? They're supposed to be dead."**

**I didn't answer but Diane did.**

**"Even though she's dead, her body functions must still be active," she explained. "I mean, if her muscles can make her walk, her other functions must works as well."**

**Kevin shook his head. "Man, nothing makes sense anymore. Although, that's probably why the brain is the weak point. All functions and senses ared tied to the brain."**

**We continued driving through the town. Oddly, we did not encounter any zombies. It's like they move out of town to find more victims. But then why was my mom and Mr. Henderson still here and in my neighborhood?**

**I looked at my friends. Kevin was looking out his window, lost in his thoughts. Diane was holding onto Champ, silently crying.**

**"I'm sorry, everybody," I apologized. "I thought that place was safe."**

**"Don't worry about," Kevin assured me. "I thought we should stay there as well. It's not your fault." **

**Now what are we supposed to do?**


	12. Save Haven

Ch. 10

3:04 P.M.

**We were completely out of ideas. It seemed like the world was three steps ahead of us. Ever single house and convience store was dangerous. We didn't bother stopping anywhere so we just stayed in the car. **

**After several hours of circling the city, a few clos calls, and anothe gas stop, I asked "What do we do now?"**

**My friends were silent for a few seconds. Then, "maybe we should leave town?" Diane suggested.**

**Kevin laughed bitterly. "It's like this in every single town across the globe. How's leaving supposed to help."  
"I'm just trying to be optimistic!" Diane snapped back. "And you saw the report last night. Some cities are actually thriving!"**

**"Calm down, guys" I said. "Arguing is not going to help."**

**"How the hell is anything supposed help?" Kevin shouted. "We're the only ones left alive in the city. Everyone else is either undead or chewed to bits."**

**I said nothing after that. He was right after all. The city and perhaps the entire world was gone. A dead world. All hope was gone and there was nothing we could do about it.**

**We drove the center of town where all the highways ran to. Just like my neighborhood, it was deserted after all the chaos from yesterday. **

_**Man, yesterday seemed like a million years ago.**_

**This was the busy part of the city so all the major shopping districts were built; however, it was a small city so the biggest store we had was a Wal-Mart. It loomed out in the open, completely isolated from other stores but within walking distance of anything in town. I drove by slowly, thinking about how I missed going there to buy CD's and playing the games in the arcade. **

**I pulled into the parking lot and parked, letting the engine idle. I checked for any danger. When it looked clear, I shut off the engine. **

**I surveyed the area. The parking lot was deserted; there wasn't a single car or zombie in sight. Across the highway in front of us was a park full of playground equipment, a couple of benches, and an empty fountain. The entire park area was surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with sharp points. To north side, there was the strip of convience stores, restruants, and a JC Penny's. On the south side, there were motels and the town's city pool. And behind the store, in the west, was the small Jackson River and beyond that was the town square. From where we were, we could see about a mile in each direction. **

**"What are we doing here?" Diane asked.**

**I sighed. "I think we should stay here."**

**Kevin looked at me. "You're crazy. We're in the busiest part of town. Zombie central."**

**I waved my had over the parking. "Do you see anything?"**

**"You're crazy," Kevin reapeated.**

**"Maybe," Diane said. "But look at it. Locked doors from the outside so you can't go in, steel doors in the loading zones and tire center, and reinforced glass doors at the entrances. I think it's perfect."**

**"Perfect?" Kevin asked.**

**"Yeah," I whispered as I got out. "Perfect."**

**Diane and Champ followed suit. **

**"You guys are crazy!" Kevin muffled's voice said. "Shit!" He got out and ran to catch up.**

**I should have parked closer to the store. It seemed like a long walk; our footsteps echoed over the parking lot. The eriee silence sent all of my senses on high alert.**

**We walked up to the doors and the opened automatically. I frowned and stepped back outside. **

**"Guys, we need to find a way to block these doors. The power is still on in the city. Anybody living or dead could still get in here."**

**" I used to work at the Wal-Mart in Sheldon," Diane told us. "I know how to turn them off.**

**I smiled. "Good, now all we to do is make sure all the other doors are shut." I turned to Kevin. "Still think this was a bad idea?**

**He didn't answer. Kevin was looking down the street over my shoulder. I noticed that his face was pale. I started to get a bad feeling. I slowly turned around, bracing for the worst.**

**There were around fifty zombies coming from down the street. All of them seemed to be speed walking but did not seem to notice us. But it would be only be a minuted before they reached us. **

**"Let's go," I whispered.**

**As soon as we moved, the zombies whose legs haven't been to severly damaged started running toward us, screaming at the top of their lungs. We ran through the first set of doors and stopped before we got through the second set.**

**"We're dead meat," Kevin whispered.**

**"No we're not," Diane said. She ran to the motion sensors on the inside of the doors and began frantically searching for something. I heard a click and Diane immediately ran to the over two. I heard two other seperate clicks.**

**"What did you do?" I asked Diane**

**"I activated the emergency lock switches," she explained. "The motion sensors and the power has been shut down to these doors."**

**"Cool. But will it work?"**

**We all jumped as the zombies thudded against the door. I didn't even notice them run up. They were trying to get through with all their strength but the doors held. I couldn't even hear them screaming and snarling.**

**"Nice," Kevin said.**

**"Don't celebrate just yet. We need to get the doors on the other end."**

**We ran through the second set of the doors and then to the other end of the store. We switched on the locks. Just in time, too. Another group of zombies reached the door just as we locked them. **

**I turned around and checked out the store. There was still power to the lights. I could even hear the tv's from the other end playing previews of upcoming movies. But other than that, the store looked completely deserted.**

**"Home sweet home," I chuckled.**

**"Shut up," Kevin snapped.**

**"Quit arguing guys," Diane interruped. "We need to check the other entrances to see if there locked. Now listen," Kevin and I turned our attention to her, "every door has a lock; you just need to find it. The locks are either on the motion sensor or near the wall next to the door. Okay?"**

**"Okay," I said.**

**"Clear as mud," Kevin stated.**

**We went our seperate ways. Kevin went to the loading areas, Diane checked the emergency exits and I went to the tire and repair center. It was very terrifying to be alone, but we needed to seal the exits as quickly as possible. **

**When I arrived at the garage, I was shocked to see that all the sliding doors were open. I ran into the garage and immediately began to pull down the exit doors and locked them. The noise from the shutter seemed to be extremely loud when it echoed in the garage. And when I was at the last door, I spotted at least a dozen zombies running in my direction.**

**"Shit," I cursed. I guess the heard the other doors sliding shut. **

**I ran to the last door and started to pull it down. To my luck, the door jammed when it was only three feet from the floor. I lifted the door again and tried to slam it down. **

**One zombie crawled under the door and blocked me from shutting it completely. The other zombies grabbed the bottom of the door and tried to lift it up. I pushed with all my strength but I could feel the the door slowly rising up. In a few seconds, they would break through. **

**But by stroke of luck, the zombie under the door crawled back out and accidently pushed the other zombies out of the way; they lost their grip. I gave a finally heave and pushed the door down. I heard the frustrated screams as I locked the door. I also saw I had severed a few fingers off the zombies's hands. The twitched a little, then stopped. I groaned and went back inside. Just to be safe, I locked the door that led into the garage. **

**I went back to the loading zones and saw Kevin emerge from the swinging doors, carrying a metal baseball bat.**

**"Where did you get that?" I asked.**

**"Sporting goods," he simply stated.**

**I chuckled. "Did you get the doors shut?"**

**"Yep, and there is one less zombie."  
He showed me the bat. There were a couple of drops of blood on it.**

**I groaned and asked "where's Diane and Champ?"**

**He shrugged. Then we heard a scream from the other side of the store.**

**"Oh, damn."**

**We ran down the aisle past clothing and toys to the groceries. We heard some struggling, items falling off the shelves, and Champ growling from a couple of aisles down. We hurried toward the source of the sound. We emerged into a bread aisle and my heart jumped into my throat. **

**Diane was pinned to the ground by an overweight employee. She was actually buried underneath the man's fat gut. The man had blood over his blue vest and I could even see the bite marks on his bald head. He had Diane's arms pinned down and was trying to bite her but she twisted and kept avoiding his teeth. Champ had a hold of the employee's leg but could not pull him off.**

**"Hang on," I yelled as I charged straight for them. When I reached them, I kicked the zombie as hard as I could in the ribs. I could hear the bones crack but the zombie did not seem to notice. I then grabbed one its arm's and tried to pull it off. **

**Kevin came forward and swung the bat as hard as he could at the zombie's head. His head bashed open; what blood there was gushed out of it's head. Diane stopped screaming, the employee's blood was running down her face.**

**Kevin and I lifted the zombie off Diane and rolled him to the end of and aisle. Diane didn't move from the floor. **

**"Do you think that's all of them?" I asked.**

**Kevin shook his head. " I don't know. We haven't checked the entire store." He looked at Champ, who was still gnawing on the zombie's leg. "Champ, cut it out."**

**The adrenaline was slowing leaving my body. I didn't think my body or mind could take much more horror. It was nothing but an endless nightmare.**

**I turned back towards Diane. "Are you al-"**

**Diane was gone.**


	13. David's Decision

Ch. 11

3:39 P.M.

**"Diane!" I yelled. My voiced echoed throughout the store. I didn't understand. It was like she just vanished. **

**"Where did she go?" Kevin asked frantically. He jumped to his feet and looked back and forth in the aisle. Neither one of us saw her move from the spot. She must of ran away when Kevin and I were dealing with the employee that was no lying motionless in a small pool of blood.**

**"I don't know," I admitted. "We need to find her though. We don't know if there are any more zombies in the store." **

**Kevin nodded. We ran out of breads and into the main aisle. There was no sign of her. No echoing footsteps or anything else. We then checked produce, meats, canned foods, and throughout the rest of the grocery aisle. We yelled for her but she didn't answer us. I never thought the store could be so big. But I guess when there are hundreds of people shopping around you, it would make it seem smaller.**

**I was beginning to run out of breath when Champ suddenly barked and shot between us. He charged back into the checkout aisle and began to run full speed towards the other end of the store. Me and Kevin tried to keep up with as he made a turn into kitchen applainces. We followed him between aisle until we came to cutlery. There on the floor was Diane.**

**She was kneeling over the floor, her hair covering her face. She seemed to be shaking slightly. I sighed and trotted over to her, thankful that she alright. Her face rose slightly and saw that her face had this blank expression on it. Her cheeks were also wet. I frowned as I she stared at me with empty expression on her face. She then lowered her eyes back down and raised her wrist. That's when I noticed that something was in her hand.**

**A knife.**

**I broke out in a run as she started to hold out her wrist. I caught the knife in her hand just as she was about to cut herself. She fought as I tried to wrestle the knife from her hands.**

**"Let me go!" she screamed. She punched me with her free hand. Kevin appeared at my side and grabbed her. I was then able to pry the knife from her hand.**

**"Just what the hell were you doing?" Kevin questioned. **

**Diane just screamed. " I can't take it anymore! I just want it all to end! I can't deal with the constant horror." Her yells chilled me to the bone. It scared me that she was trying kill herself.**

**Then she broke down and started sobbing. I place the knife on the floor and she suddenly embraced me; I felt sick. A couple of minutes ago, Diane was confident about herself and in her abilities to secure a safe place for us. Because of her, we would be able to stay here. Safe for several days, possibley even year. Now she was suicidal. But I couldn't blame her for breaking down. She came very close to losing her life and maybe ending her life herself was easier than dealing with the terror.**

**But I coulnd't let her to that. We needed to rely on each other if we were going to survive. I pulled back and held her at arms length. "Listen, has hard as it has become for us, you can't give up. I know that it seems hopeless now, but just remember this. As long as we are alive, we will always help each other."**

**Kevin nodded. "You can always depend on us to help you out. That's what friends are for."**

**Champ came to her side and nuzzled her arm. She reached and petted his head. She was silent for a few minutes while she continued to cry softly. Kevin and I didn't say anything while we gave her time to absorb our words. She then smiled and looked up at us. **

**"You're right," Diane sniffed.**

**Me and Kevin smiled. She seemed to be alright now. We stood back on our feet and helped her back up. I kicked the knife down the aisle and slid under a shelf. **

**Diane shook her head. "Sorry I lost it."**

**"Don't worry about it," Kevin said. "We all have a breaking point."**

**Diane nodded. "Guys, the doors are still not locked. That zombie attacked me before I could get the rest of the doors locked.**

**"Which one are still unlocked?" Kevin asked.**

**"The ones along the south wall. They're real simple. Just move the switch to lock."**

**"OK," I told them. "I'll lock the doors. You guys check the store for more zombies, but stay together."**

**They nodded and went to the other side of the store. I watched them leave, hoping that they would be alright. But Kevin didn't seem as scared as Diane. But I was not afraid for their safety. Me and Diane were the last people left that cared about Kevin. He would protect us with his life. Besides, he was a killing machine with whatever he could find. **

**In the meantime, I checked the rest of the emergency exits and made sure they were locked. Diane was right. It was simple. Every door was reinforced steel and would be able to take any kind of damage the undead would take against it. **

**However, when I checked the last one, a smell of fertilizer and charcoal came to my senses. I looked around an saw an open door way into the wall. This led to the Gardening section and other outdoor stuff.**

**I stiffened. I remembered that section had an outdoor area for small plants to grow. There was a chain-linked fence surrounding the area. But if any of the zombies have already entered the area, we would be in trouble. We could use that area to grow some of our food in case we ran out of canned goods or use for other outdoor activities. **

**Nervously, I ran to the doors and peaked outside. There weren't any zombies in the garden area yet, but I could hear growling from the front of the door. Actually, I could smell first before I heard them. I walked slowly towards the gate, hoping I would attract any attention and peaked around the fence towards the two entrances. **

**I was horrified to see that even more zombies were now hovering near the doors. They searched hopelessly for an opening for the live food that was inside. Sometimes even fighting slightly with each other. Even more were arriving in the parking lot from the streets. If I didn't hurry, they were going to end here.**

**But as I pushed the gate along the ground, it made a loud screeching sound. I cringed and looked up. The noise captured the attention of the nearest zombie. He glanced in my direction, gave a load roar and charged towards the gate. All of the other zombies caught and followed the first one. **

**I quickened the pace and latched the gate shut to the fence. I found a comination lock that was on the gate and snapped it on the latch. The zombies crashed into the gate, pushing it against me and throwing me back a few feet. The gate held on though. There were enough poles connected to the cemented ground that the fence only gave a few inches. All the zombies tried to push their hands through the fence, even slicing fingers off because their hands were to big. **

**I groaned and went back inside.**

**"Sorry. We're closed."**

**3:50 P.M.**

**I found Diane and Kevin in the snack aisle munching on junk food. Diane had opened a can of dog food for Champ, who was eating ravenously.**

**"Is the store clear of zombies?" I asked.**

**Kevin nodded. "Are all the doors secured?"**

**"Yes," I said. I sat down and opened a package of chocolate donuts. "Now what to we do?"**

**Diane shrugged. "We were hoping you would have an idea."**

**I raised my eyebrows. "Me? Why me?"**

**Kevin took a huge bit out of a brownie. "Staying here was your idea. Now what to we do, oh great leader?"  
I swallowed. I didn't expect to a leader; I thought we were going to decide things together.**

**"Well...maybe we should begin by arming ourselves."**

**Kevin lifted up his metal bat. "I'm good."**

**I shook my head. "There are literally dozens of zombies outside of the store. If they break in, we're going to need a lot more than a baseball bat to kill them."**

**Diane grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them in her mouth. "What would you suggest?" she asked in a muffled voice.**

**I grinned. "Well, there is a hunting section in the back. If things get messy, we are going to need firepower."**

**"Do you two know how to even fire a gun?" Diane asked. **

**I nodded. "My grandpa and dad were gun nuts. Gramps taught me how to handle pretty much any type of firearm availble."**

**"Okay," Kevin sat up. "Let's load up then." **

**We made our way to the hunting and sports section at the northeast corner of the store. For me, the sight of of shotguns and rifles on the wall gave me a sense of safety. With these weapons at our disposal, we have a better chance of defending ourselves.**

**But these were hunting firarms. I really didn't know if the effective enought. As a requirment for an ROTC class, all of the recruits had to take a hunter license test. But I wasn't really much of a hunter; I preferred clay targets. When I brought Kevin along with me and dad to a target range, he turned out to be a natural shooter.**

**Kevin took his bat and busted out the glass display. He set his gun on the counter and took a pump action 20 guage. I reached through the broken glass and pulled out a a rifle. I checked the the tag on it and it read .223 bolt. Diane kept her distance and just watched us. Kevin bent down behind the desk and started looking for ammo.**

**"Uh...problem. There is no ammo back here."**

**"What?" I asked frantically.**

**"No shotgun shells, rifle cartriges, not even a damn flare." He stood up. "Well that bites it."**

**"How is that possible?" I asked.**

**Diane was the one who answered. "There probably won't be any. They may have been relocated.."**

**We looked at her. "How do you know that?"**

**Diane rolled her eyes. "I told you, I used to work at a Wal-Mart. In case of an emergency, all of the ammo is packed up and transported somewhere in the area. I guess when the reports of riots first emerged in this area all of the ammo was shipped."**

**"So when the managers thought there was rioting in the area, he told his employees to transfer the ammo in case some jackass decided to steal all of the shells and guns."**

**"Exactly."**

**"Great! That's just great! Now what to we do?" Kevin asked. He picked up his bat and threw it across the aisle. It clattered across the floor and hit a basket of golf balls.**

**It couldn't be that hopeless. I kept searching each drawer again.**

**"Hang on." I said. I found a locked drawer. I put my gun down and ran down to the automotives. I picked up a crow bar and went back to the counter. I put the the hook into the crack and pulled with all my strength. The drawer began to slowly give away, then it snapped open in a shower of wood ships.**

**I set the bar down and started searching.**

**"Hah!" I yelled. I pulled out five boxes of twenty guage shells and placed them on the counter. "Load us up." **

**"Um, David? There only seven in a box," Kevin told me. "That's not nearly enough to protect us."**

**"I know but look." I began to pull out box after box of handgun ammunition. There had to be a least a 50 boxes in the drawer, each one had thirty rounds of ammunition. I checked the sides. There were 9mms, .38s, .45s, and .357s.**

**"Oh, great," Kevin said sarcastically. "That's not a problem at all. But wait! There is! There are no handguns here."**

**I stopped. "What?!"**

**"David, it's illegal to sell handgun firearms at a Wal-Mart store," Diane explained.**

**Kevin sighed. "I guess we're screwed."**

**I groaned loudly and began to pace behind the counter. Kevin took the shells we had and began to load them into the shotgun. It was smaller than the twelve but I saw him load ten shells into the stock. He then checked the sight but didn't load a shell into the chamber. Kevin put it on his shoulder and looked at me.**

**"Now what we do?" he asked.**

**"I don't know," I admitted. " We pretty much do not have any shotgun or rifle ammo, we have a ton of hangun ammo, but no handguns, and we need to be armed just in case some of those creeps break into the store."  
Diane blinked at me. "So what do we do?"**

**I sighed. I could see the answer in front of me but it did not make me feel any better.**

**"I guess I better get us some guns." **


	14. Different Kinds of Distractions

Ch. 12

4:21 P.M.

They both stared at me for a few moments before Diane exploded.

Are you crazy? You'll be killed!" Diane yelled, red in the face.

"Yeah, maybe. But we will die anyway if we don't have any way of protecting ourseleves," I pointed out. I turned on my heel and left themthem at the counter.

"Don't do this," Diane called.

I ignored her and kept walking towards the clothing section. Diane groaned and got up to follow me with Kevin and Champ behind her. They both got on either side of me.

"Didn't you hear me? Your going to get killed if you go out there."

I wasn't listening; instead, I was going over a mental checklist of what I would need. If I was going out there, I was going prepared. Probably the only way to do that was to put on as many clothes as I could. The more clothes I wore, the tougher it would be for the undead to reach my flesh. This was probably going to kill my speed but I think it is necessary.

I picked throught the jeans. I found a pair that was a couple of sizes bigger than mine and put them on over the pair I already had on. Then I went to the shirts and put on a couple of long-sleeved, cotton shirts. Next, I picked a leather jacket from coats and zipped it. I was about to to find some thick gloves before Kevin roughly grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. He and Diane were both glaring at me.

"Just what the hell are you doing? Didn't you hear Diane? You're going to be zombie food if you go out there."

"You don't think that I know that," I said, pushing past him and went to the winter clothes. "I know that it's stupid to go out there and I could get my ass chewed to the bone. But we need a better way to defend ourselves. One that involves putting distance between us and those creatures instead of getting up close and personal. If you guys have a better idea, I'm all ears."

They didn't say anything else for a few moments. No doubt trying to find a safer way for us to defend our stronghold. I found a pair of leather gloves from the racks and put them on. Then went to the sports area with my friends still on either side of me.

"Look, while I'm gone, I want you guys to start stocking up on things we need. One, start filling up as many sealed containers as you can with water. I don't know how long the power's going to be one but once it goes out, we won't have electricity for the plumbing. Two, stock up on food that's going to expire within days or weeks so we can get it out of the way. We don't want to get sick eating any bad food. Three, find items that can be useful that require batteries."

"Are you deaf!? You can't go out there!" Diane screamed at me.

"Look, if you don't have a better solution, get off my back," I nodded. "This is a risk that we need to take. I don't want to face an army of the undead with a bat and a shotgun with no ammo."  
They didn't say anything for a few moments. Diane looked a little panic trying to find a way out of this situation. Kevin had this blank expression on his face as he gazed at his feet. Then, Kevin surprised us when he nodded.

"You're right."

Diane turned on him with a look of horror. "You're agreeing with him? You're both crazy!"

I nodded. "Yeah, maybe so." I looked at the sports watches and picked on out that had the most accurate time. There was only a couple of hours until the sundown. I didn't know what time of day would be best to go out there but this was now the time to find out. I turned back to Diane and Kevin.

"Listen, it's about to get dark. This may be our one shot to go out into the town before anymore zombies show up. When I locked the last door, I saw a few zombies walking towards this store. We can't pass this up. I need to go know because it may be awhile before we can go anywhere."

Kevin nodded again. Diane was still shaking her head. I grabbed a flashlight from the camping equipment and loaded it up with batteries.

"OK, I'm about ready." I turned to Kevin. "I'm going to need a distraction. See if you can get on the roof and fire a few shots to get the zombies to one side of the store. While they're distracted, I'll go out to the car and go to find a hunter's shop or pawn place that has guns or more bullets. Meanwhile, I want you guys to start doing what I said earlier."

"You got it," Kevin said and actually saluted me.

I looked at Diane. "Do you how to get onto the roof?"  
She crossed her arms and scowled. "Yes, but I am not showing you."

We both looked at her. I sighed and tried to put on a puppy face, but that only seemed to make her more angry.

"I am not going with the suicidal plan of yours. We are all staying here and that's final," she said.

I stared at her for a few seconds before I quietly said, "This may be the one time that we can make our final stand. Do you really want to give up?"  
"It does not matter if we stay together. We will be fine in here."

I sighed. She was just not going to budge. I glanced at Kevin. "Guess will have to find it ourselves."

Diane dropped her arms and gave me a hard look. "You are not serious."

"I am. I want us to survive. Even if we are the only ones left in the world, I want to keep on living. You never know what might happen. But if we are the human race's only chance of surviving, I say we take the chances if they can help us. Otherwise, we're dead either way."

Diane looked at the ground. For a few minutes she didn't say anything. I hoped that she would make the right decision. This may be the only opportunity we had until more zombies showed up.

Diane looked back up. She seemed to trying to stop herself from crying.

"Follow me." She turned around and walked towards the lawaway

I smiled as Kevin followed her into the back.

"Give me a few minutes before you start blowing their brains out!" I yelled at their backs.

Kevin waved over his head. Hopefully I could return alive and we can still argue. Despite the situation, I really enjoyed hanging around those two.

I glanced at my watch and walked towards the door. Dark was probably the best time to go out. Maybe it would give me cover. I patted my flashlight in my pocket.

I waited patiently in front of the door, listening for Kevin's signal. The zombies on the other side of the door were getting really restless. They could see me through the glass and were trying desperately to break it down. I swallowed, beginning to have second thoughts abou this whole operation.

_Way to think about it now, dumb-ass_.

A minute went by before I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Diane.

"Here." She handed me a radio. It was one of the packaged ones on the racks in electronics. "It only has a range of five miles but we both want a to communicate with you. Kevin also told me to tell you to try the pawn shop on William's street. He's been there a couple of times. It most likely has the firearms we need there."

"Thanks," I told her, pocketing the radio.

She looked at the ground. "Why you though? Why can't we all go?"  
I shrugged. "It was my idea. It is also safer if only one of us goes. Besides, someone needs to open the door when I return."

Diane looked at me shrewdly. "Don't you think you should take the shotgun with you?"

I shook my head. "It would only slow me down. It would also be a pain to reload when an army of the dead is chasing me. Besides, Kevin is better with a shotgun than me. He could always hit a skit bird more times than me. He always reminds me of it, though."

Diane giggled, then stopped. She gazed at me for a moment, fumming with her hands. For some reason, I felt my heart pounding in my chest and my throat getting tight. Only then did I realize that she was rather pretty. Her eyes seemed to glow like emeralds and her hair fell to her shoulders perfectly.

_What a great time to find out that you like this girl._

A loud gunshot made us jump. I turned around and looked through the door. I saw the zombies pause, then ran to the other side of the store. There was another two shots, and the final zombie cleared my vision of the car.

I turned to Diane. "See ya. If I'm not back by morning..."

She nodded. As I turned to go, she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck."

I felt my face heat up before I hurried to the door and pressed the switch on the motion detector. There was a click and the door slid open. I ran out and looked to my left. There were more zombies than there were about and hour ago, all crowding around the north side of the store. Kevin was on the roof, taking careful am before firing another shot. I saw two zombies fall to the ground from the pellets.

I looked back over my shoulder as I ran to my car. Diane flipped the switch to lock the doors again. I saw her wave before I looked back ahead.

Luckily the doors on my car unlocked. I slid into the driver's seat and put the key into the ignition. To more my horror, the engine did not turn over. I gave it a litte gas and tried again. The engine kept stalling. I looked through the windshield. The sound of the engine got the attention of a few zombies that were trying to reach Kevin.

"Oh, crap," I muttered as half of the group broke out into a run in my direction. Frantically, I left the key in the starting lock and floored it. The zombies reached my car in a matter of seconds and jumped on the hood with the cars still sputtering. One of them was jumping on my roof when my car finally roared to life.

I gave a sigh in relief. I put the car in drive. The tires screamed against the pavement and slowly began to move foward, then caught on the pavement as I sped through the parking lot. The zombies jumped back and the one on the roof flew off. I barely missed the other zombies that were running in my direction. As I pulled a one-eighty in the parking and sped to the stoplights, I could see them in my rearview mirror. They were still running after me.

I turned out of the stoplight and headed north down Main street to find a road that would take me to William's.

"Are you alright?" said a voice out of my coat.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the radio. "Yeah I'm fine. That scared the crap out of me though."

She laughed over the radio. "Be careful out there. Bring us back something nice."

I smiled. "I will." I put the radio down on the passenger seat and floored it down main street.

I hoped my plan would work. But why was I getting guns when I could not kill a zombie? I still had that sensibillity that killing was wrong. That barrier in my mind could not be broken.

I shook the thought from my head and concentrated on my destination.


	15. Discovered

Sorry about the long wait. I've been busy with college and work. It took me a while to edit this chapter and I still think it sucks. But I need to update the story.

I hope you enjoy.

The city was more worse that I thought it was. I had to take a few detours through the streets because the streets were blocked off with debris. Also, they were several groups of zombies that were wondering around. Who knew they traveled in packs? I guess if they did and they found something to eat, they would all be there at the same time.

The thought sent a chill down my spine, but I shrugged it off. I had a job to do and I couldn't let myself be distracted.

My watch read that I had half an hour left of daylight. The setting sun was beginning to cast long shadows across the streets, giving me enought cover so I could sneak into the streets.

After taking a few side streets, I finally reached the pawn shop Kevin mentioned. It was a medium-size building connected to the buildings around it. It looked like an old fashioned antique store with the lamps and furniture displayed in the window, but I could see power tools, golf clubs and guitars in the background. The name of the place was 'We sell or buy anything shop'. Real original.

I parked on the side of the street and cautiously looked around the street before I got out. There was still light enough that I could see a few blocks in every direction. The street was empty and had that creepy-horror movie theme with the wind blowing and the darkness. I wanted to get this over with so I ran to the front of the shop and pulled on the door. It was locked.

"Damn," I cursed. I hoped I wouldn't have to break the window. The streets were quiet enought that the sound would echo a few blocks.

Maybe there was a back door. I went around the corner and into an alley that led to the back. A wooden fence surrounded the back of the store. I stood on a trash can and peeked over. A yard with dying grass and a rusty swing set was the only thing there. I pulled myself over. The door from outside looked like reinforced steel I made my way inside, believing that my luck was changing.

My smiled faded as I saw that the store was completely wrecked. VCR's, computers, guitars, and tools were thrown all over the room. DVD's and cameras were torn apart. China dishes and other funiture was shattered into pieces. But that wasn't the worst.

I could see a pool of blood from behind the counter. I went behind it, bracing for the worst. A dead man was behind the counter, with a hole in his head, his blank eyes staring at the ceiling. Blood trickled down on his forehead. His nametag on his chest read 'Randy'. He must have been an employee here. I guess he decided to end his life besides letting the undead do it for him. Perhaps that was what he believed to be best idea. I bent over him and closed his empty eyes.

But then I felt a tingle of hope. If the owner shot himself, maybe there were still some firarms left around. I carefully searched the body and the area around it but didn't find anything. Not even a shell casing. I sighed and cover his body with a tablecloth from the back room. I went back out into the shop and searched through all of the wreckage.

After about ten minutes of searching, it looked like there was not a single firearm left in the store. I picked apart all of the debris and didn't find anything, even all of the rifles and shotguns were gone. I yelled in frustration and kicked aside some old records that were strewn across the floor. My foot hit something solid and a long, thin object flew across the floor and hit the wall. I stepped over the trash to see what it was. I felt my heart leap has I recognized the object.

It was a maroon, wooden sheath with a black handle and gold trim. I picked it up and pulled on the handle. The silver gleam of a sword emerged from the sheath, shimmering from the setting sun's light. The handle was a about nine inches long, big enought to grasp with two hands. It was decorated with black thread in a diamond shape pattern. The blade itself had to be thirty-five inches long. The flat part of the blade had a curve to it. I could see a faint line tracing up the blade ending in a sharp point.

I held the edge out and ran a finger slowly up the sharpened edge of the blade. I pulled my finger back and could see a trickle of blood running down my finger through the cut leather. The cut was so clean that I didn't feel any pain.

I examined the blade more closely and saw a symbol at the edge of the hilt. It was in Asian charater's I recognized as _kanji_. I smiled. This was an authentic Japanes samurai sword. Perfectly sharp and ready for use. I sheathed it. Maybe it wasn't a gun but it could be useful. I was incredibly lucky to find something so deadly in a store like this. It must have been only for a few eyes and whoever had the money.

But in my own eagerness, I decided to test it out. I set up a guitar on one of the stands and and withdrew the sword. I swung hard at the handle of the guitar. The blade sliced cleanly through the wood without making a sound. The top handle of the guitar went flying across the room and hit the glass display panel at the counter, cracking it a little. However, when I saw what was in the display case, I cursed and congratualated myself.

The handguns were right there, untouched and right in front of my face. In all of searching of the store, I didn't even bother to check the display racks. I went over and busted out the glass with the handle of the sword; the panel completely broke away. I reached through the shards and pulled grabbed handgun. There was a tag strung to it; I turned it over and read the description. This handgun was a Beratta 9mm. with a capacity of fifteen. Grinning like a kid, I found a duffle bag I found behind the counter and began loading the firarms into the bag.

Besides the Beratta, there was also a Browning Pro-9 with a capacity of 12, a double action Glock 17, a Ruger P94 double action with a capacity of ten, and a .45 Sig P220. There even a couple six-shooters like a Rossi Model 851 and a even a rare Colt Python .357 Magnum. At least that's what the sticker said. In addition, there were a couple of .38 back-ups I've seen police use in the movies. I didn't know much about guns, but I did know that we had enough ammunition for all these firearms back at the store. Not enough to fight, but enough to protect ourselves.

When I loaded the guns into the bag, I did one more quick search of the shop to see if there was anything else I could use. If there wasn't, we had everything we needed at Wal-Mart. I did, however, find a couple of retractable steel batons, a pair of night vision binoculars, and a couple of twelve inch knives. In addition, I found several different magazine clips for the handguns and loaded them in the bag as well. When I couldn't find anything else, I wrapped the sword around my shoulders, picked up the bag full of weapons, and went out the back door.

I breathed in the cool air of the night and looked at my watch. My search only took only about a hour and a half. I climbed back over the fence and eased back into the dark streets. I hope that my friends got everything done while I was gone. But it .

I was about to round the last corner when a scream echoed across the street. I pressed my body against the brick wall and didn't dare to breath. It was had to tell were the scream came. I couldn't tell what direction it came from. It didn't have the inhuman shriek or the gurgled moans of the other zombies. One thing was for sure, it was from someone alive.

I slowly moved back to my car, keeping my eyes open for any movement. The sun had gone down and my only source of light was from the faded street lights lined along the sidewalks. I didn't hear the scream again. But someone might be in trouble, so I risked my life to call out for the person.

"Hello!" I yelled out in the street. "Anybody there?" There was no answer. I felt the urge to help this person, but I needed to get back to friends. And if I couldn't tell what direction it came from, there was no point in venturing out into the unknown with killer zombies on the loose.

I walked to my car. When I emerged into the street, I heard a loud clunking of trash cans a few stores down. My adrenaline kicked in and I ran to my car. I opened the door and put the guns in the back seat. I bent myself to get into the car when I heard the scream again. But this time, it was louder and high pitched.

The sound of someone dying.

I got out of the car and ran down the street to the source. Suicide, I know. But I needed to help if I can. I made a left at a Payless shoe store and went into in alley between the store and small diner. At the end of the alley, I could see three bodies crouched over a fourth. The fourth body was a girl, about a few years older than me with blond hair. She had on a black shirt that was now opened up and the zombies were feasting on her organs, steam rising up from them in the cool night air. Her blue jeans ended in a pair of white converse shoes. I then felt my stomach drop because I recognized those shoes. I only knew one person who wore them.

My friend and co-worker, Jessica.

My friend was now dead, being eaten by creatures that were no longer alive. And the last thing I heard from her was the sound of her dying. Was there anything I could do to stop her death? If she was alive, did that mean others were alive as well? I had to tell my friends that others might be alived. We could propably help. With my stomach like ice and my feet like lead, I walk away and back to my car.

With the wind blowing in my face, I took a moment to breath it in, then gagged. There was actually a stench of death in the wind. I began coughing, trying to get the smell out of my nose. It was so strong, I could almost taste it. That thought took me beyond my sanity and I threw up in the street. I took a deep breath and then threw up again. I didn't stop until my stomach was completely drained. My head began to feel light headed. When I stopped heaving, I heard a roar of a zombie from down the street.

I spun around and saw the zombies burst from the alley. I could actually hear them taking big whiffs of the air and then turned in my direction. They began moving towards me, screeching at the top of there lungs and already taking bites out of the air. When they were only a few meters away, they walked in a street light. I punched myself in the face and looked again, not believing what I was seeing.

They zombies from the alley, the ones that were eating Jessica, was my family.

The were coming for me. And I know it was not because they missed me.


	16. Hard Decisions

Ch. 14

6:10 P.M.

My family emerged from the alleyway, caught the scent of my sick, then charged in my direction. When they came into the light, I gasped. I barely hardy recognized them. They all had a grayish tinge to there skin and was even beginning to peel off their faces. They each had dried blood on their clothes and their faces. What life was still on their faces was reflected in their red, glowing eyes But that wasn't even the worst.

Natalie's shin was even worse than before. The bone extended even further out of her skin. It did not stop her determination to eat me though as she hobbled on her good leg and whatever was left of her other one. The corners of her mouth were stretched out and the bite on her arm was leaking green pus and covered in maggots.

My mom was just as bad. Her left arm hung limp at her side and her entire face was covered in dried, black blood. I guess it was her shoulder that broken when she fell through the kitchen table. Her face was did not show the love it used to, just madness as she shrieked for my blood.

My dad was liked the rest of my family. Covered in blood and organs, he hurried as fast has he could towards me with his arms raised. That was when I noticed that his right hand was a stump. Thinking back, it must have been the one whose hand was sliced off at the golf course. The thought that I sliced off my dad's hand was sickening.

I was stunned for a couple of seconds. I didn't snap out of until they were about a few meters away and I could smell the decay on them. I turned around and headed back to my car. Just my luck, the door was somehow locked and the keys were still in my pocket.

"Crap!" I shouted. How could I be so stupid to lock my door? Who the hell was going to steal it?

I pulled my keys out of my pocket and frantically tried to put them in the keyhole. I got my door unlocked and was about to climb when dad slammed into me. The force knocked me to the ground and made me lose my breath. As I tried to refill my lungs, Natalie jumped on my chest. She lunged for my neck, her teeth black and chipped.

Reacting on instinct, I raised my arm to block her bite. Her teeth locked onto my foremarm, but did not bited through the leather jacket and the many shirts I was wearing. Her teeth slid off my arm and all she had a hold of was my jacket. I twisted my arm out of her grip. The jacket sleeve ripped away and Natalie began to actual chew on the leather. I pushed her off my chest and jumped back on feet. Natalie rolled off me and then came me again. I sidestepped her but my mom came from out of nowhere and grabbed the front of my jacket. She pinned me against my car and lunged for my face. I grabbed her neck and tried to push her away, but she wouldn't budge. Somehow, despited the fact of being dead, she gained even more strength than she previously had. It was like pushing against a brick wall.

I thought I was dead for sure when my dad suddenly pushed mom out of the way. Mom went sprawling across the ground and I looked at my dad. I thought maybe that there was some spark of my dad's conscience still existed, that he did not want to see his son die. But that changed when dad grabbed me and tried to take a bite out of my face as well. My strength was drained after my struggle with mom so I could barely hold him back. My vision was beginning to blur while my dad pinned me to the car. If I didn't get him off me, I was going to black out from the lack of air before I was going to get eaten.

But then dad let and focused his attention on his waist. This time, Natalie intervined in trying to take the first bite. She gripped dad around the waist, trying to pull him away. Dad fought with Natalie for a few seconds before mom recovered and pushed both of them away. Dad and Natalie tripped over each other, and all three of them fell to the pavement. Dad's hands slip off my jacket and I was finally able to breath.

My family was now snarling at each other in the streets, trying to get off each other to get me. I tried to move to get back to the door, but my body was exhausted. I tripped over my feet and landed on my back.

A sharp pain went up my spine when I landed. I rolled over to see what I landed on. There was nothing there. I reached behind to rub the spot it hurt the most and instead touched an object that wasn't supposed to be there. There was something smooth and hard attached to my jacket going diagnolly across my back. I reached around with my other hand over my shoulder. There, I felt the handle of the sword I forgot I strapped to my back earlier.

A scream broke me from my thoughts. My mom finally untangled herself from dad and Natalie. She charged towards me with hands in front of her. I ducked underneath her arm and rolled away from the car. Natalie and dad got up and stood next to my mother.

I realized what had to be done. My family was now between me and the car. Between me and getting to my friends and having a chance of survival in this dead world. But in order to do that, I would have to go through my own family.

_No. Stop calling them your family. My family is dead. These creatures are only shells of the people I once loved. Their souls have passed on._

I reached over my shoulder and pulled the blade out of its sheath, holding it in front of me. My family seemed hesitate for just a second, staring at the blade gleaming in the moonlight. Natalie acted first. She snarled then charged forward.

"Sorry little sis," I whispered and swung the blade low.

The sword sliced cleanly through her legs, completely amputating them with a sick squishing sound. She fell to the ground, struggling to try and stand up on legs that were not there anymore. She screamed in frustration. Her stumps were oozing what blood she had left in her body. I turned around and faced mom and dad. I could live with myself if I killed my sister. Even if she was a zombie.

Mom didn't hesitate. She ran towards to my left side. I dodged, swinging the blade from low left to my upper right. Her right leg was sliced off as she brushed past me. She tumbled to the pavement, shrieking that I got away. She began to crawl on her knees towards me. Leaving no other options, I closed my eyes and swung the sword down. I felt only a little resistance as the blade sliced cleanly through her skull. Pieces of flesh and decay flew from her wound and splattered into the street. I opened my eyes and faced my father.

My dad slowly looked at Natalie still struggling on the ground and mom laying motionless. It almost looked like he was trying to decide what to do. I was now defending myself with a weapon. But that didn't seem to matter as he charged at me.

"Sorry," I said again. I stepsided him and swung the blade at his waist. He dodged to the left, just barely escaping the blade. Dad then charged again. I stuck my foot out and kicked him in the stomach. He didn't react to the pain, but the force of my kick sent him back a couple of steps.

That was the opening I needed. I swung the sword towards my father's neck. The blade sliced through his neck and spinal cord. His head fell to the ground as his body just stayed standing for just a second before falling as well.

I lowered my arm to my side, tears running down my face. I killed my first zombies. Not just any other undead monster, it had to be my family. How ironic.

It seemed like enternity before I finally moved towards my car. I barely took two steps when something grabbed my boot. I looked down. Natalie was trying to pull my foot towards her mouth. I yanked my boot out of her grasp and raised my sword. I swung the blade in an arc and the sliced through the top of her skull. Her head and arms immediately dropped. All this happened so fast that I didn't even realize it. I was going to keep Natalie alive. How could have I done this? How could I have killed my baby sister? MY FAMILY?

_No, they were already dead. Plus they had try to kill me. Those zombies were not my family members. My family died two days ago. _

**"Forgive me," I told their lifeless bodies. I really wanted to give them a proper burial. It seemed wrong to leave them out in the street. But it couldn't be helped. I had no time and my friends needed me.**

**I slowly got into my car and drove away. I as I did, I took a look at my family laying on the pavement. I used to think I my family wasn't the best kind in the world. But now I realize that they loved me with all their souls and that's all I could have asked for. **

**I remembered last month when Monica broke up with me. I stayed in my room for three days, missing school and ignoring everyone around me. All my friends tried to tell me to move on, but I wouldn't listen to them. My family, however, respected my wishes and left me alone. Then on the third day, they all entered my room and tried to comfort me.**

**"Dave, when your first love is gone, it's always hard at first. When I broke with my first girlfriend, I though about killing myself. But my dad gave me some advice that I'm going to give you now," my dad continued. "Don't let your life end because of this incident. Love is a part of life, even if that love ends. You can't really live until you realize a broken heart. It's the emotions that make us human."**

**My mother noded. "This heartbreak only makes you stronger for your life, not weaker. Now that you endured a loss, you can truly live."**

**Natalie jumped on my bed and held my hand. "Besides, she didn't like me. You don't want a girlfriend who doesn't like you little sister."**

**I smiled at that memory. My family my not have liked me at some points in life, but they did love me every second of it. I couldn't have asked for a better family. One who supported me at my baseball games, helped me with my homework when I needed it, and stood beside me through the hard times. **

**I took one final look out my rearview mirror, "thank you for everything. I won't forget."**

**Guiding the car back to the store, I picked up the radio and pressed the call button.**

**"Guys, can you hear me?" **

**There was a few seconds of static. Then, "you got Diane. Are you alright?"**

**"Yeah I'm fine. I'm on my way back," I reported.**

**There was a pause. "Kevin wants to know if you have the guns?"**

**I grinned. "Yeah I got them." I heard a whoop over the radio. "I'll be at the store in a few minutes. Keep the doors unlock and have a pot of coffee ready."**

**"Um...David? You might want to wait a few hours until morning to try and get back here."**

**"Why?" I asked puzzled.**

**"Because they are about two hundred zombies in front of the store, waiting for you."**


	17. I'm Not one of Them

Ch. 15

7:23 P.M.

Diane told me not to come straight back to the store so I parked in a motel about a block away. The motel had balconies, so I climbed to the second floor and looked at the store with the night-vison gogglies I got from the pawn shop. When I saw the parking lot, I nearly dropped the binoculars.

I was silent, dumbstruck, as I observed the area. Diane was right. There had to be at least two hundred zombies outside of the store. They were outside of the store, just standing there. I could hear the moans of frustration from where I was standing. It almost looked like they were waiting for something. Possibly me?

I picked up the radio. "Diane can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Where are you at?" she questioned.

"I'm in the motel across the street. When did this happen?"

"Immediately after you left," she reported. "Kevin continued to kill zombies until he ran out of shells, but when he was done, he came down and said their three times as meany zombies as before. He thinks they followed the sound of the gunshots."

I was stunned. "They followed the sounds?"

"Yes. I guess if zombies here gunshots, it must mean someone's alive to fire them."  
I sighed. "A dinner bell."

"Yeah. We must be the only ones alive in the town. Just like Kevin said."

I put the binoculars back to my eyes. Five more zombies joined the ranks of the two hundred. If their numbers kept growing, I wouldn't be able to get back into the store. I had to find a way back in.

I turned my binoculars back and forth, then spotted the repair center garage.

"Diane," I said into the radio. "Can you guys go to the garage and open the door."

"Yeah, but what are going to do?"

"I'm going to drive in it, of course."

There was a pause. Then I got Kevin's voice.

"David, that's suicide for all of us. We'll just be letting them in."

"No I have an idea. Listen..." I carefully told them my plan. Diane was against but Kevin and I was for it. It may have been the only chance I had.

I got back into my car and carefull pulled into the parking lot with my lights off. My car eased towards the store until I was within hundred feet of it. Somehow, the zombies did not notice me. I waited a few minutes, then turned on the lights and blasted the horn. I thought that might startle them and they might scatter, but it didn't work. They just turned around and stared at me, their red eyes reflecting in my headlights.

"Come on. Catch me!" Spinning the wheel and pressing the gas, I did a three-sixty in the parking and faced them again. They didn't move.

"Dammit, come and get me," I rolled down my window. "Fresh meat. Come and get it!"

I did a couple of more donuts and faced them again.

"Uh-oh"

I guess they decided they were tired of me spinning in the parking lot because they were already fifty feet away and closing in.

"Crap!" I pulled on the emergency brake and pulled a one-eighty towards the exit. I floored it, but again, the tires spun on the pavement.

I tried moving the steering wheel to try and get it moving but to no avail. I felt the zombies reach my car as they thumped onto the trunk and began to bang on the windows. The windows in the back glass and doors were shattered and and hands were already trying to reach in. I actually felt one on my face before I felt the car finally surge forward. I blasted through a few bodies that reached the front of my car and I felt the bumps as I ran over them.

I pulled onto the street and went forward about a block before I turned around. A majority of the zombies were following me, exactly right on my tail.

I picked up the radio. "Guys, it worked. I'm leading them away from the store. Are you in position?" I asked.

"Yes," said Diane. "Ready when you are."

"OK, I'm making my move."

I pulled over the curb, drove through a ditch and right back into the other side of the parking lot. They zombies on my tail followed me and the ones that stayed in front of the store charged towards to me. I floored the gas and gunned towards the repair garage. A few zombies bumped against the car and went flying over the hood. I was only a few meters away when I gave the signal

"Now!" I yelled into the radio.

The garage doors slid open just as reached them. The brakes screamed as the car came to a stop. But it was not quick enough because I skidded into the opposite door, denting the front end of my car a good three inches

I got out of the car quickly and helped Kevin shut the door. The zombies were bearing down on us. We finally got it down as the zombies slammed into it, barely making a dent.

I flinched as I felt something grab me. I looked over my shoulder and found Diane hugging me from behind.

"Glad you're back," she told me.

I sighed and grabbed her hands. "Yeah, me too."

Kevin finished locking the door and Diane let go. They both saw me at the same time, then recoiled. Kevin ran to the tool wall and picked up a tire iron.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You've been bitten," he told me. "I'm putting you out of your misery."

He swung the tire iron at my head. I ducked under the blow and ran the the other side of the car. I kept it between me and Kevin.

"Are you crazy? I haven't been bitten!"

"Yeah, right. And the blood on your face is from what?" he asked mockingly.

Diane nodded, looking stricken. "You do look like you have been bitten."

"Huh?" I looked at my face in the passenger's side window. There was indeed blood on my face. I was wondering where it came from. It must have came from the zombie who grabbed my face in the parking lot. There must have been blood on his hands.

"Look, it isn't mine," I explained. I tried to wipe it off with my sleeve.

"We're not going to take that chance," Kevin blurted out. "Better safe than sorry."

"I can explain," I told them. But they were not letting up.

"I don't care. Let's just-"

His words ended in a scream as he jerked away from the car. The all-familiar adrenaline pumped into me as I ran around to the other side to see what happened.

A zombie, decapitated at the waist, was crawling from underneath the car. Crawling on his hands, the zombie moved furiously towards my friends. It's entrails were being dragged across the ground behind it.

Reacting on instinct, I pulled my sword out from its sheath and slashed downward. I split the zombie's head right down the middle. Blood spattered from the impact and onto my face. The zombie jerked and then stopped moving. I wiped the blood from my face and looked at my friends. They each had a look of horror and disbelief on their faces. Maybe I freaked them out a little bit.

I sheathed my sword and walked over to the cleaning station. I turned on the water and put my face under it, washing all the blood off my face. When I was done, I took a long draughth and turned the sink off. Drying my face off with paper towel, I went back to my friends, who were still staring at me.

"What's wrong?"

Diane looked at Kevin. "Well..We never seen this side of you."

Kevin nodded. "What happened to 'they were once people'?"

I shrugged. "I realized that you we're right. The world is overruned with killer zombies and we need to do what we can to survive."

Diane looked at me more closely. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

Diane didn't look convinced. When I was done, I went back to the car.

"Here are the guns," I reached into the back seat and handed the duffle bag to Kevin. "Go load us up. In the meantime, I'm going to get something to eat."

Kevin went back to the hunting section and I headed to the deli section, stripping off the extra layers of clothes. I picked out a couple of sandwiches that were already packaged. Grabbing a bag of Dorritos and a bottle of Coke, I went to the food court to eat. I took my sword off my shoulders and began wolfing down the food. Diane sat across from me in the same booth. She picked up the sword.

"Where did you get this thing?"

I swallowed. "From the pawn shop."

She unsheathed it and stared at the blade. It still had small traces of blood on it. She examined it for a few minutes before sheathing it. She then stared at me very hard.

"OK. What happened?

I took a sip of pop. "What do you mean?"

"Something happened while you were out there and I want to know what," she said fiercely.

I ignored her and reached for some chips. She grabbed my hand in mid-air.

"Now."

I tugged my hand out of her grip. I was beginning to get annoyed. "Why do you want to know?"

Her expression turned gentle. "Because something changed you while you were out there. I can see it in your eyes. Something very bad happened to you."

I sighed. I could tell her the truth. I killed my family to survive, to return here with the guns and help my friends. But I didn't want give her any more surprises. I think she had enough to deal with today. Besides, I really liked her. I didn't want to tell her I killed the souless corpses of my family. So I lied a little.

"I just made my first zombie kill when I was at the pawn shop. With this sword in fact," I explained.

She looked at me shrewdly. "And..."

"'And' nothing. That's it," I said simply.

She didn't look convinced. She put her hand over mine.

"You know you can always tell me," she said gently.

I hate when girls do that. It's the ultimate weapon against me. The infamous puppy dog eyes.

"Alright, something else did happen. But it is personal. OK?"

She looked troubled. "How?"

"It just is. You don't want to hear about it."

The look on my face must have said something because she didn't press the matter any further. She just stared at me with very sad, green eyes.


	18. Kevin Can't Shoot

Ch. 16

8:04 P.M.

When I was finished, we headed over to the hunting section. We found Kevin seperating the bullets into different piles with Champ watching him, curious about what he was doing exactly. I looked at his work. Each one of the handguns had its own pile of ammunition around it.

"How's it going?" I asked.

He looked up and smiled. "We hit the jackpot. You got all the guns we needed." He waved a hand over the weapons. "It's a good thing you found extra clips for the automatics. We are now armed to the teeth. Maybe not safe, but armed."

I smiled and picked up the Beratta. The solid weight felt good in my hands, knowing I had some way of protecting ourselves.

Diane picked up the Glock. "How do you work this thing?"

Kevin pulled it out of her hands and showed us. He picked up an empty clip and loaded it into the handle of the gun. He coached us on how to load a bullet into the chamber and how to eject the clip when it's empty. He told us it's very important to know how many bullets you have so you can only use them we you need to. Also proper gun safety and how to take one apart and clean them.

I put the gun down and looked around the table. I saw an opened box of bullets, but they were too small to be handgun's. I turned the box around. The label said .22.

I looked on the shelf. There were hundreds of boxes of .22's. Now I was mad. If we had all of these .22s here, why did I risk my neck for other weapons.

"There are boxes of .22s on the shelf and I nearly killed myself getting handguns?" I yelled angerly.

Kevin glared at me. "Watch it. Look, we already tried those guns while you were gone. They're too weak to penetrate the skull."

I turned to Diane. "Is that true?"

She just shrugged. "Yes, but I couldn't hit anything with the gun. I really suck at shooting."

I looked back at Kevin. "So are you sure these are going to work?"

He nodded. "Positive."

Diane looked skeptical. "I don't know. Are you sure?"

Kevin grabbed a couple of full clips and headed towards to layway. "Only one way to find out."

I eagerly followed him. Diane groaned.

"Champ, stay," she told her dog.

We followed Kevin to the back and to where the ladder was. It was hidden behind a heavy metal door. He lead the way up the letter while me and Diane followed behind him. I got a sudden chill as we reached the roof. The temperature dropped rapidly since an hour ago. Diane immediately started shivering as soon as she stood up.

I took off my jacket and held it out. "Here."

She took it and smiled. "Thanks. It's freezing up here."

Kevin led us the edge of the roof. From this point, I could see for miles in every direction. We live in the flat part of the state so there weren't any mountains around us. But it was a new moon and now it was cloudy. I couldn't see more than a block.

The zombies below us, pacing and eager for food that was inside. They looked horrible in the light provided on the sides of the store. Their sking was a mixture of gray, red and black. Some of them had missing limbs.

And the smell coming from them was almost unbearable.

Kevin took a full clip and loaded it into the gun, pulling on the end and locking a bullet into the chamber

"Okay, here is your first lesson in shooting," he instructed. "Remember, always aim for the head. One quick bullet to the brain will kill any zombie. As so." He pointed his gun down towards a male zombie in overalls and ball cap and pulled the trigger. The bullet smacked into the zombie's shoulder. The zombie jerked from the impact, but did nothing else.

Kevin looked embarassed. "Let me try again." He took aim this time at a blond female zombie wearing a business suit. He pulled the trigger and the bullet went into the woman's neck. She didn't seem to notice the bullet as what blood was in her poured from the wound.

"Shit," he cursed. "Okay, one more time."

I grabbed the gun from his hands. "Quit wasting bullets," I snapped.

Kevin glared at me. "Fine. You try then, Mr. Sharpshooter."

I sighed and moved to the edge of the roof. I held the gun with both my hands to keep it steady. I focused down the sight, exhaled and squeezed the trigger.

The woman in the suit dropped dead. I aimed the gun again towards the zombie in the overalls. The bullet entered his brain and he dropped dead as well.

I fired at more zombies. A man in a restraunt uniform, a woman in a dress, even my high school algebra teacher, Mr. Jenson. It surprised me that I recognized him because half of his face was eaten off. I put and extra bullet in him just in case. The guy onced failed one of my tests because I stated home to take care of my sister when she was sick.

I kept firing until the gun clicked empty. It was a weird moment. I was okay with a rifle, but I seemed even better with a handgun. It was like was an extension of my had.

"See, easy as pie," I chuckled. Kevin just glared at me.

Diane just stared. "Wow. That was impressive," she awed.

I glad it was dark because I could feel my face burning.

Kevin scowled and took the gun away from me.

"Yeah, yeah, we're all impressed," he mumbled. "I still got to organize the bullets." He went back down the ladder.

I walked back to the edge and stared out into the parking lot. The had to at least be three hundred zombies now, trampling over there fallen companions that I killed. Seeing my townfolk like this almost too much.

Diane walked beside me. "Do you recognize anybody?"

I nodded and pointed at a zombie in a plaid shirt. "There's Daniel, head of the 4-H club."

I pointed to the female zombie in a green top. "That's Rebecca, a member of my high school's cheerleaders."

I groaned as I explained the next one. A nine year-old boy. "That boy right there. He was my sister's crush. She used to go on all the time about how cute he was. It annoyed me to no end."

We were silent for a few minutes.

"Do you miss your family?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes. My mom died when I was three so my dad had to take care of me. He had no clue on how to raise me, but he did a great job. I always reminded him he did; although he never believed it."

"How did your mother pass away?"

"Leukemia." Her face turned dark.

I looked at the ground. "I'm sorry."

She linked her arm through mine. "Thanks. That means a lot."

I smiled. It may have not been the most romantic moment but I would take it. We were silent for few moments, gazing out over the carnage below us.

"How about your family?" she asked.

I tensed up. If she only knew what happened just a couple of hours ago.

"Yes," I whispered. "They were all I had too."

We spent about half an hour outside, just talking about nonsense. When we went back to the hunting section, we found all the bullets sorted but Kevin was nowhere to be found.

"Kevin?" I called out. His name echoed throughout the store, but I didn't hear an answer.

Diane took one of the guns and held it out for Champ to smell. "Go find him boy."

Champ took a whiff of the gun and immediately headed for the checkout counters. I grabbed my sword and we followed him. We found Kevin with a BB handgun, a look of concentration on his face. On the other end of the aisle, I saw a BB target trap and a paper target. Kevin took careful aim and pulled the trigger. He fired three shots, barely able to be heard, and then went to the target.

"Damn," he cursed.

I went over to his target and checked it out. There was only one hole on the paper and it wasn't even on the target circle.

"How many shots did you fire all together?" I asked nervously.

"Twelve," he told me, scowling at the target.

I tried not to laugh. "Maybe shooting isn't your thing."

"That's bullshit! I'm the best skeet shooter in town. The guys at the range said I would have taken first place in the last city tournament if I was old enough to enter."

I nodded. "Maybe, but you used a shotgun. A handgun is a little bit different."

He glared at me. "I know that, smartass."

Diane joined us. "You should stay with the shotgun."

Kevin shook his head. "No, you need that gun, Diane. You are even worst tham me at shooting."

She scowled. "Thanks a lot."

I tried to think of a way to improve his shooting. With the danger we're in, we could risk missing any shots. A miss can be deadly for us. But then I thought of something else.

"Here," I said, holding out the sword. "Maybe you should use this."

Kevin looked at me skeptically. "Why would I want to use that?"

I shrugged. "Because you like to get close with these zombies. Remember at the golf course? Or the gas station? What about the Wal-Mart clerk and the baseball bat?"

He thought about it for a second. Then took the sword.

"Are you sure? You found this. It should be yours. It was really cool when you used it on the zombie in the garage."

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure you would do better than me with that." Besides, I killed my family with that weapon. I really didn't want to touch it anymore.

He withdrew the sword and made a few practice swings. He smiled.

"This feels right. I don't know how; it just does," said Kevin. "And you have a point. I do like to get close."

The way he said did freak me out a little bit.


	19. Nightmare

Ch. 17

10:12 P.M.

After a quick snack, we got ready to sleep. We pulled a few air mattresses from the camping section and began to air them up with an electronic pump. Kevin went to get some comforters and pillows while Diane and I aired up the mattresses.

"Okay, which one of us is going to stay on guard tonight?" I asked.

"We don't have to," Diane told me, turning off the pump.

I turned around to face her. "What?"

"I can turn on the security systems for all the doors," she explained. "If there happens to be a breach in any one of the doors, an alarm will sound."

I nodded. "Brilliant. Can you set the system?"

She smiled and left, but not before messing up my hair. I tried not to watch her leave, but couldn't help it.

"Getting a little chummy, aren't we?" Kevin said as he emerged from the next aisle with a shopping cart full of comforters.

I threw the empty mattress box at him. "No."

Kevin shook his head. "I don't know, it looked like you two are digging on each other."

I raised an eyebrow. "Digging on each other?"

He lauged. "I'm just saying you two look really cute."

I was about to say something when a loud beep echoed throughout the store. There were two more short beeps and a final long beep. Then the lights shut off, except the emergency lights. It was light enought to see, but dark enough to sleep in.

Kevin and I began unzipping the comforters out of their bags. Kevin suddenly turned serious. "Listen, just don't fall for her."

"Why not?" I snapped.

"Because right now, we're in a time and place were she could be dead tomorrow or the next day. You'll be devasted if that happens. I remember when Monica left you."

I tensed. He had a point. Now that everyone was dead, I did have to be careful. If something did happen, I don't think I would be able to live with myself if I lost anyone of my friends.

"What's wrong?" said a voice behind me.

I turned around and gave a fake smile to Diane. "Nothing." I got up and turned to my friends. "We better get some sleep. We can think clearly on what we're going to do tomorrow."

They agreed. We pulled the mattrasses out into the biggest part of the aisle and set the comforters out. I took the one on the left. Diane took the center with Champ. Kevin took the one on the right.

"Good night, guys," I told everybody.

Diane yawned. "Sweet dreams."

Kevin laughed. "Yeah, right." He put his sword on the floor beside him.

I sighed and put the Beretta, the Glock, and the flashlight beside me. Both were fully loaded.

It felt like the day lasted a whole week instead of 24 hours. Now I just realized how tired I was. Not even caring that Kevin started snoring, I rolled over and fell asleep.

October 17

I woke up in the middle of the night. I always had trouble staying asleep; an anxiety problem that ran in my family. But something was wrong. There was a funny smell in the air. Something sweet and horrible at the same time.

I sat up, switched on the flashlight, and looked around. Nothing but the buzz of the electronic equipment and the motionless racks of clothes. I sighed and looked at my friends. Then my heart lept into my throat.

Diane's mattress was stained with blood that gleamed in the beam's light. There was no sign of Diane but Champ was there. I got up.

"Champ?" I whispered. I wonder why he was motionless while something happened to Diana. Then I realized what was wrong.

Champ's organs were ripped out his body. The blood was still fresh and flowing out of his stomach. I aimed the beam up his body and looked at his face. The skin around Champ's muzzle had been chewed away and his eyeballs had been ripped out. After what I had seen yesterday, it didn't sicken me as much to see a freshly eaten body but it was still bad.

"Sorry, boy," I told my new friend.

I aimed the beam at Kevin's mattress. What I saw made me scream out loud when I saw the same gleam.

Kevin was dead.

His throat had been ripped out. Skin and gristle was all that remained of his neck as blood still dripped from the wound onto a puddle on the floor. His eyes were open in surprise and his mouth was open in a silent scream. His katana was still by his side, untouched. I felt my face getting wet as tears rolled down my cheeks

My had closed his eyes, pulled the comforter over his body, and wiped my face. There was nothing else I could do. But it still didn't answer the question of where Diane could be. Did the zombie carry her off? Why didn't the alarm sound off when the store was broken into?

I aimed the flashlight's beam around the aisle and the light caught a gleam. There were bloody footprints, leading away from us. I grabbed the Beratta and followed the footprints down the aisle. I could feel my heart beating in my chest.

I wasn't prepared for this. My best friend was gone and very soon would turn into an undead soldier. Diane had been dragged off and could possible be turning into a zombie as well. If it came down to it, I don't think that I could end either one of their lives.

"Diane! Where are you?" I called out. I kept following the footprints to the layaway section. The led through the swinging doors and between shelves of stored equipment. The room was huge.

The footprints were fading out. I followed what was left of them to the corner of the room. I think it was just my heart hammering, but I thought I could hear something from the other side of the shelves.

"Diane," I whispered. I slowly moved around the corner, the gun pointed in front of me.

There was Diane, standing up with blood dripping from her mouth. Her red eyes glared fiercely at me. There was a bite mark on her arm, dripping with saliva and blood. She must have been the one who killed Kevin and Champ.

At her feet were three zombies. I recognized them as my parents and Natalie.

_Impossible. I killed my family. Why were they here?_

It felt like all my insides just dissapeared. I lost another friend. I failed to keep my friends safe when I promised them everything would be okay. I was all alone now.

"Sorry, Diane," I whispered as I aimed the gun at her. I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

I knew it was empty before I pulled the trigger. I can't explain it but I just knew. The gun was useless so I dropped it. I didn't even move as Diane let out a snarl and charged at me. I didn't even flinch as I felt her teeth sink into my neck.

I then woke up, dripping in sweat.

It was morning. Sunlight was dripping through the skylights. I sat up and put my face in my hands.

I couldn't do it. If my friends turned, I could not bring myself to kill them. The reason I chose to kill my family was because I knew I had Kevin and Diane waiting for me here. But if my friends turned, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it. They were the only family I had now.

I looked up at the skylight. There was not a cloud in the sky. I smiled as I closed my eyes and listened to Kevin's snoring. I guess he was still alive, but he was making enough noise to wake the dead. I glanced at the middle mattress. Champ was laying on his side, drooling all over the comforter. Every time he exhaled, the skin around his muzzle flapped.

I smiled and looked over Champ.

I sprung up. Diane was gone.

"Oh, man. Not again!" I grabbed the Beratta and lept over Kevin's mattress. I heard him grunt as my foot accidently hit him.

I ran down the aisle. I checked every single part of the store, even the back room in the food court. I couldn't find her. I was running back to Kevin to warn him was going on when I came to the same spot as my dream.

Why I didn't check that room first never occured to me. Maybe last night's nightmare was still burning in my head. Taking a deep breath, I walked through the double doors. I went down the storage aisle, checking every single row. Even the corner where my dream occured. No sign.

Panic began to sink into my chest. I could not lose Diane. I went along the side of the brick wall and checked the first door on the left. It was empty. I took a quick double take. It was a locker room. Five-foot lockers surrounded the walls and bathroom stalls covered one side of the room. I shut the door and went to the next one. I heard my heart thumping as I turned the doorknob. I thought I heard a hissing noise from within.

There was Diane, wrapped in a towel and looking fresh as a daisy. The hissing noise was the shower.

Who knew Wal-Mart had showering rooms?

Diane looked up at my sudden interuption. We both turned red in the face.

"Get the hell out!" she screamed as she threw a shoe at me. I ducked underneath it.

"Look, I'm trying to-"

The next shoe hit me square in the nose. I blacked out before I hit the floor.


	20. Internet still Works

Nearly 3,000 views and 20 reviews. I thank everyone for reading my story.

But I'm recently running into writer's block. So I'm afraid that the next chapters in my story are not going to be as exciting as the past ones have been. I just thought I would give a warning.

Oh, I've also created a photoshop image in my deviantart profile for my story. This is what the book cover/movie poster would look like if my story every became famous.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7:25 am

"I was worried sick about you!" I yelled at Diane, holding the ice pack to my nose. "You couldn't wait until we were awake?"

Diane gave me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. You scared me though."

Kevin didn't say anything. Mainly because he wouldn't stop laughing.

Kevin woke up when he heard Diane screaming from the locker room. He went back to sleep after I kicked him. He and Champ came in through the door to find me unconcious on the floor with blood coming out of my nose. They revived me with smelling salts they found in the athletic department. It wasn't pleasant to have a throbbing pain in my nose, a knot forming in the back of my head, and Kevin laughing hysterically in my face.

"Although, I can't say you had it coming," Diane told me with a stern look.

I was mad. "I try to save your life and you tell me I deserved to get my nose busted."

Diane put her hands on her hips. "You ran into the women's locker room. Besides, you didn't see the tag?"

I looked over at the door. Indeed, there was a door tag that read 'occupied'. I could I miss that?

"Um....sorry?" I tried to apoligize. "I guess I was in a hurry and didn't see the sign."

She smiled and bent down to take the ice pack of my nose. "Thanks anyway." She reached out and gently touched my nose. I winced.

"Well it's not broken, but it is going to be swollen and sore for a couple of days," she explained.

Kevin finally stopped laughing long enough to gasp, "you were laid out by a shoe. How stupid is that?"

I got up and pushed his shoulder. "Watch it, dude."

"Easy, Rudolph." He left, laughing over his shoulder.

I groaned and put the ice pack back on my nose. "Just warn me before you run off next time," I muffled behind the pack.

"It's a small store and the doors are lock," she told me roughly. "I'm not going anywhere."

I nodded. "I know that. I just worry about you."

She glared at me. "I can take care of myself, thank you very much. I don't need a babysitter."

She whirled around and went to join Kevin in the food court for breakfast. But not before I saw her give me a small smile and a wink.

I sighed and patted Champ on the head. "Your master can be very confusing sometimes."

He groaned and put his head on his paws. I chuckled.

When I finally regained my balance, I picked out a bar of soap and clean clothes off the racks to cleaned up. At least the showers worked and it felt great to shower after a few days of being covered in dirt and blood. When I was done picking the tags off, I joined my friends in the food court. The power was still on so Kevin was able to use the food court's oven and made us scrambled eggs and bacon. I grabbed a chocolate milk from the freezer and sat in the chair across from my friends. Kevin put a plate in front of me. The smell of hot food was overwhelming and my mouth began to water.

"Thanks," I told Kevin and took a bite of eggs.

I chewed happily for a few seconds then stopped. It felt like my mouth turned into fire. I spat out the eggs and immediately chugged down the chocolate milk. That didn't help so I went to the kitchen's sink and stuck my head under the faucet. I turned on the water and did not emerged for nearly a minute. When I did, I saw Kevin laughing and Diane looking confused.

"What did you do?" I gasped. My mouth was numb and still stinging.

Before he answered, I saw a opened jar of flavor sauce on the counter. I took a closer look. It was fire flavored.

I grabbed the jar and shook it in front of his face. "You put hot sauce in my eggs!"

Kevin put his arms up in defense. "It was just a joke."

"That wasn't funny!" Diane yelled, punching him on the shoulder.

I grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him against the table. "That was inexcusable. You don't mess around with other people's food!"

"Look, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, right! We need to be careful here and not-"

My sentence was cut short by a muffled sream and a sharp crack. I let go of Kevin and walked out of the court to the front doors. It was only hundred feet away.

Through the bright sunshine, I could see the zombies out there. They were trying to bust down the doors in failed attempts to get us. The doors held but it was scary seeing them this crazed. They were determined to get us.

I noticed one lying in front of the glass. A female whose head was caved in. Then I noticed a small spatter of blood in the door.

She just tried to break down the glass using her head.

Kevin turned pale. "They really want to eat us."

"So let's stop joking around for the moment," I suggested. Diane and Kevin nodded.

We finished the rest of our breakfast in silence. Neither one of us felt like talking after seeing the that display at the door. I was surprised to see I still had an appetite after seeing that.

When we were done, we each had a seperate job to do. Diane went to check the generator to see if we had enough fuel in case the power went out. Diane said she had to work one last year at her store when a snowstorm stranded a couple of people inside. Luckily, they generator was indoors.

Kevin went to reinforce the all the doors by putting in screws in the doors with scrap metal from the repair center and wood from the box crates.

I moved the dead zombie I killed last night from the garage before he stunk up the place. We might need that garage again and I didn't want it smelling like death.

It was easy, but foul. I wrapped the body in tarp and carried it with the crane the clerks use to raise heavy packages to the higher shelves. I drove the crane to the back and raised the zombie up to the hole the lead to the roof. It was too much of a risk to open one of the doors and dump it out there. So I carried the tarp through the hole and onto the roof, where I dragged it across the gravel and pushed it over the edge. The zombies never noticed their companion fall to the ground.

I gazed out over the parking lot. I could see tire marks from my stunt last night and several zombies I ran over when I was trying to get to the garage. But that wasn't the worst. After a quick estimate, I counted at least four hundred zombies in the parking lot and spreaded out over the store. I knew there had to be more in town but it seemed like the idea to these zombies that fresh meat was inside here.

I went back downstairs and to the generator room. It took me awhile to find it. When I did, all I saw was the giant box filling the room. It had a few guages on it with the usual pressure and fuel on the display. Also, several black, fuel drums occupied pretty much the rest of the space in the room. Diane came around from the other side of the generator.

"How are we for extra power?" I asked.

Diane walked towards the guages, wiping her hands on her shirt. She even had smudges on her face.  
"I think we're good. The generator is filled with fuel, it's just getting it started is the problem." She pointed to a rusted part of the generator. I could make out the year 1980.

"They really didn't take care of this thing."

I sighed. "We'll worry about it when the time comes. Let's go check up on Kevin."

She nodded and followed me out of the room. We found Kevin near the front, sealing the front doors with a power drill. The zombies outside were practically beating themselves to death trying to reach him.

"Are we secured?" I asked, patting him on the shoulder.

He wiped the sweat of his face. "Yeah, that's the last one. We should be safe now."

I smiled. We were secured, we had our food in order, and extra power was ready in case we needed it.

Kevin got up and brushed off his knees.

"Now what do we do?" he asked.

I already thought of that. "I think we should try the TV's and see if anything is on."

Diane nodded. "The TV's in electronics should have satalite hook-ups."

In electronics, we spent ten minutes looking for the dumb switch that Diane said would switch the TV's to public access. I finally found in the cashier's counter. I flipped it on.

"What the hell?" Kevin cursed.

There was a emergency broadcast signal on every single station. Even Comedy Central. The constant ringing rang from every TV.

Frustrated, I flipped the switch off.

"Looks like all the stations are offline," Kevin grumbled.

"Now what?" Diane asked me.

"Let's try a radio station," I suggested.

We each took a radio off the shelf and plugged them into an outlet. I turned the knob slowly, watching the numbers switch to each radio station. All I got was static, both AM and FM.

"Anything?" Kevin asked.

"No," Diane said. Kevin kicked his radio across the aisle.

"Okay, that didn't work either," I said.

Kevin looked ticked off and Diane began pacing.

Diane suddenly snapped her fingers.

"What about the internet?"

"The internet?" Kevin and I said together.

"Yes. All the managers have internet access from their offices. Surely the internet's still working."

Kevin and I were silent for a few moments. Then I shrugged.

"It's worth a shot."

"Lead the way," said Kevin.

Diane lead the way to the manager's office at the front of the store, next the service center. She opened the door at the end of the hall and went inside to a small, cozy room.

"This is were I also boot the security system and turn off the lights," Diane explained.

She sat in the chair and logged on to the web. It took few minutes to connect before Wal-Mart's home page loaded onto he screen.

"Figures," Kevin mumbled.

"Where should I go first?" Diane asked me.

"Try the Yahoo web page," I suggested.

Diane typed the address into the box and clicked 'go'. They was a second's pause before the Yahoo home page was downloaded. My mouth dropped open in shock.

"Protesters run amok around the world."

I didn't even ask Diane to click on the link.

All contacts with any other cities has been lost. Everyday, even more and more people are turning to revolting against their governments. They're have been reports in some cities of a food scare, resulting in the canniblism. There have also been reports that these people are dead, but no proof has been brought forward. Right now, all military personal have been deployed to try and stop the protesters, but so far have not succeded. We will keep you posted if anything new is brought forward."

"How stupid can they be?" Kevin exclaimed. "These people are dead, not protesting."

"This could be old news," I suggested.

"Look," Kevin pointed. The publish date said yesterday around 5 p.m. "After a full day of chaos, you think they would notice these people are dead.

Diane exited out of the page and scrolled down to top news.

"What the...," Diane whispered.

I followed her gaze. I swore loudly when I read it.

"World leaders give order to have cities destroyed."

Diane slowly moved the mouse to the link.

"Paris, New York, New Dehli, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Moscow have been destroyed by nuclear annahalition by the leaders of those countries. The attack came three p.m. Atlantic time on October 16, when the President of the U.S. gave the order to fire several nuclear warheads at these cities. All the world leaders have have been evacuated and are now currently in a safe house in The Hague. There has been no word from them since.


	21. A Day of Fun

Ch. 19

8:57 a.m.

None of us said a word for a few minutes. The damage must have been severe in those cities for our world leaders in destroy them. There must of been millions of people who have been infected. Our leaders must have guessed that in order to maintain control, they had to annalite the world's major cities to do so.

I finally spoke up. "Is there anything else on any other websites?"

Diane numbly typed in the address for MSN.

"Nothing. Same news as the other day. Before this started," she reported.

"What about CNN's web page?" Kevin suggested.

Diane typed in the address and reported, "Same stuff as Yahoo's."

I groaned and walked out of the room. I needed to think and this small room wasn't helping.

I walked back to our mattresses and laid down. It felt like my strength had suddenly drained away from my body. Diane, Kevin and Champ joined me.

"What's wrong?" Diane asked.

I took a minute before answering. "I think we're fighting a losing battle."

Kevin laughed. "Your just realizing this now?"

"I thought it would be better by now. The military would gain control of this chaos and wipe out the zombies. But I guess it was wishful thinking," I whispered.

"Look, David," Kevin said. "We still don't know how this thing started. If it is a viral problem or some kind of chemical, there may be a cure."

I sat up. "Those people are dead. There is no cure for bringing someone back to life."

Kevin just shrugged. "It was just a suggestion."

"A stupid one," I said bitterly.

Diane sat beside me. "What's really wrong?"

"Like I said, we're in a losing battle. Our most important cities have been bombed because there is no hope in controling the zombies," I explained to her. "I thought that the government would be helping us, not obliterating the cities to 'solve the problem'. There is no hope."

I sat up and leaned my head to my knees. "Maybe we should just end it."

My speech was rewarded with a sharp pain to the back of my head. I jumped to my feet, clutching the forming knot. I saw Diane holding the flashlight I left beside my mattress.

"I don't want to hear you say that again," she yelled, waving the flashlight at me.

"What the hell did you do that for?" I groaned, rubbing the spot.

Diane stood up and looked me in the eye.

"You're the one who is telling us that we need to survive. That there is hope for humankind," she lectured. "And now, you're saying you want to give up?"

"You read the message," I pointed out. "All hell as broken loose. There only way to stop this thing is by total anhilation. Our world is dead. There is nothing we can do now."

She hit me with the flashlight again. This time on the top of my head. I cursed and grabbed the spot with one hand while keeping hold of the other knot

"I refuse to accept that. You got me convinced yesterday that we should not give up. I believe that now. I'm going to keep fighting."

Kevin nodded. "Me, too. Those undead bastards ruined our future and the entire world. I don't care if I have to slice off the head of every single one of them. Even though they already are, they're dead meat."

I had to chuckle at that. They were right. If there was hope for humankind, we had to survive. The human race is a fighting race. We survived the Ice Age, the Black Death, the Great Depression, and Christmas shopping sprees. I couldn't give up now.

I nodded at my friends. "You guys are right."

"Of course we are," Kevin chuckled.

I smiled. "We can't give up. Besides, if the human race doesn't survive, who else are you guys going to annoy?"

We all lauged at that. Kevin punched me in the arm.

"That's the David we know and despise," he chuckled.

"Well, someone's got to keep track of you guys," I said.

Kevin put me in a headlock. "Tell me you just didn't say that."

"Yes, I did," I mumbled.

Diane got up and started messing up my hair. "No, you didn't"

I pushed them onto the mattress. We wrestled around for a few minutes, acting like kids again. It was weird to have fun when their are a few hundred zombies outside, but that didn't matter. It stopped when I yelled 'uncle' because Diane and Kevin pinned me down and got Champ to lick my face. We sat up laughing and we didn't stop for a few minutes.

When we stopped, I asked, "so what do we do now?"

Diane shrugged. "I don't know."

"I don't have any ideas either," said Kevin.

"Did you guys organize the food that was about to expire yesterday?" I asked suddenly.

Kevin nodded. "Yep, we sorted them out so we eat the food that will expire first before it goes bad."

"Okay, what about useful items that use batteries?"

"What items we could find are piled up in generator room," Diane explained. "We also found a couple of portable generators that are charging right now."

I nodded. "Water?"

"Every sealable container is filled up," Kevin grinned. "They're in the back room with the other cold products."

I stared. "I was only gone for two hours yesterday. How did you guys do that?"

They both grinned but didn't say any more.

I rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head, thinking of what else needed to be done.

"So what should we do?" Kevin asked.

"I got something," I finally said.

I went over to the DVD rack in the electronics. After browsing a few titles, I selected American Pie: a classic.

"What are you doing?" asked Diane.

I unwrapped the package and popped the disc into the DVD that played previews of different movies on all the TV's. "I think we earned ourselves a break."

I turned around and found my friends with a shocked looks on their faces.

"What?" I asked.

"Again, we never seen this side of you," Diane said, her eyebrows raised. "I thought you wanted to be serious about staying safe."

I picked up the remote with a sigh. "We can't be on guard all the time. All the doors are sealed, everything is stocked up, and we can't find anything else to do. I say we kick back and enjoy the free stuff around us."

They didn't do anything for a few seconds. Then both at the same time, they grabbed the mattresses and pulled them to the front of the TV. I smiled and went into the grocery aisle to get something to drink. Indeed, everthing was in order of expiration, stacked right in the middle of the frozen food aisle so it wouldn't go bad. My friends really outdid themselves. I grabbed a couple of drinks and a dog bone for Champ. I returned to find Kevin and Diane fighting over who gets to control the remote.

We spent all morning in front of the screen, watching movies we never seen before. We even hooked up a home theater system and pumped the sound up to the max. Our teeth vibrated to different movies like Die Hard and Independence Day.

We ate lunch later and Kevin somehow dragged a basketball goal into the check-out aisle. It took a long time for him to persuade us to play because I told Diane of his skill. Neither one of us wanted to play him one-on-one, so Diane and I teamed together. Even teamed together, he still creamed us.

"Mess with the best, you bleed like the rest," he chanted, spinning the ball on his finger. We didn't speak to him for a hour after the game.

After we got tired of getting our asses beat, we decided to try a few games boards. I hadn't played any of these games since I was a kid, but somehow had a lot of fun. We had our own strengths in different games. But after a few games, we didn't care who won. And after a few more, it was a little painful to play these games. They reminded us about our families.

Afterwards, Kevin and Diane decided to watch another movie. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the Internet. Nothing else had changed and only a few internet sites were still working.

"How many people do you think are still alive?" Kevin asked quietly.

I shook my head. I then found something interesting.

"Look at this guys," I said.

It was a website that reported where the infections began in the World. For some reason, it showed that the zombies first showed up around coastal cities. As the areas moved inland, they grew larger at a faster rate.

It also showed areas that I couldn't figure out that were important. Just a few examples were Denver, New Dehli, Ottawa and Moscow.

"What is the pattern?" I asked fiercely.

"What pattern?" Kevin asked. "I don't see a pattern."

"I know there is!"

Kevin shook his head. "I'm going to bed. You can stay up if you want but forget about this."

I continued to stare at the screen. I watched the simulation over and over. I could see a pattern, but could not figure out what it is. There had to be some clue.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Diane.

"David, let it go for the evening."

I sighed and nodded, turning off the screen. It's been a long day and I think all of them are going to be like this.

We walked back to the our sleeping places.

"I had fun today," Diane said, slipping her arm in mine. "Thanks for letting us let loose."

"I'm not your mothers. You're free to do whatever you want."

"Yeah, but you make it fun."

I smiled. "Thanks."


	22. We Missed One

October 18, 2006

8:41 a.m.

I was dreaming of bacon and eggs and big glass of chocolate milk for breakfast when I felt something nudge my lower back.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," came Kevin's voice. "Breakfast is ready."

I rolled over and looked up at him with sleep in my eyes. "Please tell me it's bacon and eggs."

He smiled. "Yep, now hurry up and get a plate before I give your share to Champ."

I shot up and made my way to the food court. Champ was there eating a bowl of dog food. He glanced at me, as if the say hi, and then went back to his dish.

I looked around and didn't spot Diane anywhere.

"Where's Diane?" I asked as Kevin went back to the stove.

"She's already done eating. She's taking a shower." He then winked at me. "She's also put the door tag up and taped a poster board sign up written '**occupied**' on it with a marker."

I grinned and returned to my eggs. I learned my lesson from last time. My nose was still sore but the swelling went down considerably. Only an alien invasion would get me back there.

"Dude, where did you learn how to cook?" I asked.

He peppered his eggs before answering. "When you live on your own for a couple of years, you learn."

I finished my eggs just as Diane joined us. She had on new clothes and her hair was still wet. She sat down beside me.

I reached over and pulled a tag off her shirt. "You missed one."

She smiled. "Thanks. I see you learned your lesson from yesterday and stayed out of the locker room."

I touched my nose gingerly. "Yes ma'am."

Kevin lauged from the grill. "You guys are too cute. It makes me want to throw up."

"Shove it," Diane and I said at the same time.

Kevin just smiled. "So what are we doing today, lovebirds?"

I scowled at him. Kevin was beginning to kid around too much these days. He used to be very serious and determined. Maybe the world being infecting with flesh-eating zombies changed him. I could see why. Maybe it was just cabin fever.

"Well, if any of you guys have any objections, I thought we could start by checking all of the sealed entrances. We need to see if any of them show any sign of letting up."

Kevin nodded. "I'll check the front and the shopping cart entrances."

"I'll check all the emergency exits and the garden center," Diane volunteered.

"And I'll check the back," I said. "Don't check these places without your weapons."

Everybody nodded. Kevin grabbed his sword and went to the front. Diane armed herself with the shotgun and went with Champ to the exits. I loaded the Beratta and went to the back rooms. I checked every single storage room and went between all the storage racks. The doors and loading docks were all locked. There were no signs the zombies were trying to break in, although I was pretty sure I could hear them growling from the other side of the door. I shuddered and went to join my friends when a sudden thump made me stop.

I spun around and held the gun in front of me. There was no there.

I was beginning to think it was my imagination when I heard it again. It came from my left, in the farthest corner of the storage room. I made my way the corner and I heard it again. Louder this time. It sounded like it was coming from inside the wall but where? I pressed my ear against the wall to listen. I could hear a faint rustling from inside.

_What the hell is that? A rat?_

I followed the rustling to the corner of the storeroom. In one corner was a small section made entirely of wood. It was painted the same color as the concret wall, but easily noticable.

I lightly tapped on the wooden wall with the handle of the gun. I jumped back when the wall swung slowly open towards me. I raised my Beratta and walked around the door, aiming the Beratta into the room. It was pitch black. The rustling had also stopped. I gave up, thinking the rat ran off when off when I opened the door. I closed the wall.

I was almost out of the storage room when I heard the rustling again. Annoyed, I went back to the wall and loaded a bullet into the chamber. I was tired of this rat scampering throught the walls, so I decided to put it out of its misery. I tapped the door again and the door slowly swung open.

But before it was all the way open, something hit the door and made it slam into me. I was knocked off my feet and slid across the floor. I was dazed for a couple of seconds. When my eyes focused, I wish they didn't.

There in front of me was another shopping clerk zombie. Male. But this zombie was a little different than the ones outside. As far as I could tell, there were no bite marks on him and there was no blood around his mouth or on his clothes. However, I could see his eyes, glowing red like burning coals.

I jumped back up, aiming the Beratta towards his head. The zombie pounced again and hit me in the chest. The bullet went off towards the ceiling. I was knocked to the floor. I felt the gun leave my hands. It slide across the floor and under one of the storage racks.

"Oh, shit."

The zombie was on my chest, pinning me to the ground. I felt the air just leave my lungs. As I tried to fill them back up, the zombie lurched forth. Out of desperation, I grabbed his neck with my left hand to stop him and used my right to punch him in the face. I aimed for his head and avoided the teeth. The zombie registered the impact, yet tried again to eat me. Once again, I punched him in the face. And again, he shook it off and lurched forward.

If I didn't do something, I was dead. Getting a good grip on his neck, I began to push him back. He slowly let up. I was able to get enough room between our bodies to get my feet against his chest. I kicked forward and he went flying across the room. I was on my feet before he landed.

I went to the storage racks and looked under. My gun was only a few feet away. I reached a hand under the rack, but somehow the gun was still beyond my reach. I could feel my fingers barely touch the handle when the zombie snarled and leaped for the attack. I jumped away just in time as he smashed into the racks. The racks fell over, revealing the gun. But by some dumb luck, a box full of lifting weights fell on top of the gun.

"You've got be kidding me."

I looked around for a weapon. Their was a fire extinguisher behind me. I unhooked it from the wall and swung it at the zombies head, just as he was regaining his footing. The extinguisher connected with loud ping. The zombie flew through the air and hit one of the racks. He didn't move afterward.

Gasping for air, I went to the box and tried to lift it off the gun. It was too heavy to lift so I tried pushing it off. The box slid across the floor along with gun. Cursing my luck, I kicked the box. The only thing I did was jam my toe. I swore loudly, hoping on one foot. And that's when my friends decided to show up.

Kevin had his sword out in front of him and Diane had the shotgun to her shoulder. They saw the zombie on the floor and looked at me with bewildered expressions.

"How did he get in?" Kevin asked.

I moved forward. "I thought you said the area was clear the other day." I hit him in the shoulder and he wheeled back.

"What's your problem?" he yelled, holding his shoulder.

"Everything is still sealed shut so there was no way anything to get in. That zombie was still in the store when you sealed the doors the other day."

Kevin was dumbstruck. "I was sure this place was cleared. It doesn't make any sense."

"He was hiding in the wall. There was a secret room back in the corner." I pointed at the door.

Now Kevin was pissed. "Now how was I suppose that was there. It's perfectly hidden."

"That doesn't matter," I argued. "You were supposed to completely check this room and-"

I was interrupted by something slamming into me and Kevin. My back hit the floor and the wind was knocked out of me. The clerk zombie was still alive. None of us notice him get up. He had me pinned to the floor again.

"Shoot it," I yelled at Diane.

She took aim and pulled the trigger but nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" I yelled, holding the zombie by the shoulders.

"I don't know. The trigger is stuck," she wailed.

I turned to Kevin. He was knocked to the floor when the zombie hit me. He was unconcious. I could see blood coming from the back of his head.

I did the same move as before and got me feet underneath the zombie. I kicked him across the room where he hit the wall. I noticed the wall he hit had tools hanging from it. Before the zombie could get back up, the wall fell forward. By some sort of blind luck, a screwdriver fell off the wall and landed in the top of the zombie's head. He let out a loud howl before the wall fell on top of his head. The zombie's shrieks stopped.

I let out a breath and then sucked it back in. I turned toward Diane, who was really pale. The shotgun was shaking in her hands. I walked over to her and picked the shotgun from her hands. I found the problem.

"The safety was on," I said, smiling a little.

I gave the gun back to her. Her lower lip trembled, then she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"I'm so sorry," she whimpered.

I held her for a few seconds before I gently pushed her away. "It's okay. I'm still alive, so no worries."

I went over to Kevin, who was beginning to revive.

"You okay," I asked.

"Yeah, I think so," he replied weakly. He reached up behind his head and rubbed the sore spot. His hand came back red. "Oh, shit."

Come on, let's get you wrapped up." I picked him up, putting an arm around my shoulders.

"Sorry about the zombie," he apoligized as I carried him through the swinging doors.

"Don't worry about it."


	23. More Cities Gone

**October 19-10:24 am**

**I took Kevin to the pharmacy section and Diane bandaged his head. While she wrapped him up, I went back to the room and dug out the zombie underneath the wall. If I left him there, he would have started to stink up the room. I lifted the wall off of him and saw what killed him. When the wall came down on top of him, the weight of the wall drove the screwdriver deeper into his head.**

**His name tag said "Eric". I recognized him from the college baseball team. He was a graduate student who volunteered to help coach little league. **

**I realized now that the people I have seen turn to zombies had life-threatning wounds. When I saw Natalie's wound when she came home, it looked like someone took a chunk out of her arm. A wound like that would have caused her to bleed out in only a few minutes. When she bite my mom, she got her neck, immediately cutting the artery. This clerks's wound didn't even bleed. He must have been attacked and then hid in the room, where he changed a couple of days later.**

**He probably didn't know what hit him.**

**Yet, I've only seen people turn into zombies. When Champ attacked that one zombie at the convience store and again when we first arrvied here, he hasn't changed at all. He attacked the head yet, seems to be complete immune to this infection. Another thing, when I went on my trip to the pawn shop or when I was upstairs on the roof, I've seen stray cats and dogs running around with the zombies. They both ignore each other. Neither one feeds on the other.**

**Maybe the zombies are only intersted in human flesh instead of animal. **

_**Ugh. Why did I just think that?**_

**After I disposed of the zombie, I went back to the secret room with a flashlight. I did a quick search of the room, finding gallon jugs of water, emergency rations, a radio, and a couple of blankets. Some packages were open and strung around the room. Even the radio was turned on. I turned the beam on the door. On one side, it looked like part of the wall. But on the inside, there was reinforced steel. Another quick search and I found the walls lined with steel frames and concrete blocks. My only conclusion was this was some kind of bomb or storm shelter.**

**The clerk must have been attacked by the other clerk and hid in the room. He stayed there, thinking someone might come and help him, but instead go sicker and sicker. When Kevin checked the back room, the clerk must have been too sick to do anything. When he finally changed, he must have heard me through the door.**

**I went back to my friends to tell them my discovery. Kevin was sitting at the bench while Diane wrapped his head in white gauze.**

**"Stop squirming. You're going to loosen the wrap," instructed Diane.**

**"Well, quit wrapping it so tight," Kevin complained.**

**I smiled. They were getting along nicely.**

**Kevin looked up and frowned. That look said he still felt guilty over what happened. **

**"Everything alright?" he asked.**

**I nodded. "Yeah. How are you feeling?"**

**"I took a couple of aspirin, so now the room as stopped spinning." He pointed a finger to Diane. "She had to cut my hair so she reach the wound. I got a bald spot now," he complained.**

**I looked at the floor. Indeed, there were several locks of hair scattered across the floor.**

**"It will grow back," I laughed.**

** Kevin didn't say anything else while Diane finished wrapping his head. During that time, I told them what I discovered. They both had a suprised look on their faces when I was done.**

**"So he was in the room while turned?" Kevin said incredibely**

**I nodded. "Looks like it."**

**Diane tapped the guaze to Kevin's head. "So his bite only needed to break the skin in order for him to turn?"**

**"Looks that way. That's how the infection spreads so quickly. Just one bite could turn you into a zombie, depending on how serious the wound is. The more dangerous, the quicker you were likely to turn. When you turned, you would bite someone else. Thus, continuing the chain."**

**"That make sense. But who or what started the chain?" Diane asked.**

**I shrugged. "That's what I don't get. There has to be source, but the infections spreaded so quickly that people didn't know where it started."**

**Then I remebered the reports on the web. The website I found showed a simulation of where the first reports began. **

**"I'm going back to the office. I need to see that pattern of infection again."**

**I went to the manager's office and booted up the computer. Amazingly, the internet still worked. I clicked the icon for the web and scrolled down the history tab. The link to the webpage with the simulation was still there.**

**I clicked on it, then swore.**

**The page was gone. It didn't exist anymore.**

**Frustrated, I clicked on the Yahoo link. Then felt my mouth drop open.**

**"What's going on?" Kevin inquired as he and Diane joined.**

**I pointed at the headline. Kevin cursed.**

**"Los Angeles and Berlin now destroyed. POTUS and the other leaders gave the order to now destroy more cities as the military control in those cities as been lost. It's been agreed that the only way to gain control was tactical nuclear detonation. The detonation occured at 8:30 P.M., Western time. No other news has been given. We will keep you updated.**

**"Why the hell are they doing this? There could still be people alive in those cities," Diane said quietly.**

**"Because they're a bunch of selfish bastards," Kevin answered. **

**I agreed. There had to be better ways to gain control than destroying an entire city. Lots of innocent people may be in places like ours, well-protected and waiting for help. **

**"Do you think they might attack our town?" Diane asked.**

**"I don't think so. Our town is too small to be considered a serious threat," I said, still staring at the screen.**

**I shut down the computer and we went to the food court to get some lunch. We didn't say anything while we ate. I could feel the tension and depression from my friends. They didn't seem to believe me about not being attacked. To be honest, I really didn't believe it myself. **

**When we were done, they asked me what they needed to now. I couldn't think of anything.**

**"Just do what you want to do," I answered quietly. "But before you do, follow me."**

**I led the way to hunting section. I went behind the counter and went to the knives. I unlatched the doors and searched the cabinents. I came up later carrying a few twelve-inch Bowie knives. **

**"I want you guys to keep these with you at all times," I explained as I handed them out. "With the right strength and speed, one of these can go straight through the skull of a zombie. Also...," I reached into the sports bag I used to carry the handguns. I pulled out a couple of the hanguns. "...take these with you as well."**

**They took them with a troubled expressions.**

**"Are you sure these will work?" Kevin asked skeptically.**

**"Yes, they will work. There may be a time when you do not have a proper weapon. So we have to learn to use any object we can."**

**Diane looked shocked. "Do you think it will ever come do that?"**

**"Yes," I answered. "I think at one time or another, it will come to that. Remember, only six shoots come with a revolver. Use your bullets wisely. So, enjoy your day today." **

**I walked off, leaving them there at the counter. They were free to do whatever they wanted. And right now, I felt like being alone. **

**I grabbed a .22 and a box of bullets that Kevin said he used. I made my way to roof, carrying the gun to my shoulder. I made my way to the edge and looked down. **

**They were know more zombies than I could count. The entire parking lot was covered with them, pacing around the store. I couldn't even see the parking lines. Looking at these zombies, I could tell that they had not eaten in a while. Dried blood on their clothes was beginning to fade and was also peeling from their faces.**

**While I was scouting the area, a couple of zombies saw me. They began screaming and ran to the side of the store. The other zombies sensed what was going on and charged to the side of the store as well. No doubt about, they knew fresh meet was inside. How did they know though? Did they have some kind of sense that let them know where live people where? **

**Sighing, I loaded the .22 and took aim at a male zombie wearing a business suit. **

**The small bullet hit the zombie in the left temple. The suit jerked from the impact, but did not fall down. Kevin was right. The .22's were too weak. It took nearly ten bullets before the zombie finally hit the ground. I guess we could use them for target practice.**

**I spent the entire afternoon on the roof. My aim improve considerably, but there were only nine dead zombies. The ones still alive didn't even bother trying to get me anymore. Their frustrated howls were considerably loud.**

** I went back down to get more bullets. On the way to the hunting section, I saw Kevin and Champ laying on the mattresses, watching a movie. Champ now followed Kevin wherever he went. I don't know why. Kevin didn't even look up as I approached.**

**"Where's Diane?" I asked. **

**Kevin didn't take his eyes off the screen. "She's around."**

**I sighed. I put my gun beside my mattress and went to go look for her. After a few minutes of searching, I found her in clothes derpartment. She's was trying on different jackets in front of the mirror. I took a brown leather one of the rack and snuck up behind her.**

**"I think this one looks good on you," I said, putting the jacket in front of her. "It almost matches your hair."**

**She turned around and smiled. "Thanks, but brown doesn't look good on me."**

**I had to disagree. She would look good in anything.**

**She suddenly looked at the ground. I saw her hand reach for the knife on her belt.**

**"David, I'm not so sure I can do this."**

**I nodded. "Yes, you can. All you need is experience."**

**She looked up. "But I'm scared."**

**"I am, too," I assured, putting my hand on her shoulder. "I would think you were crazy if you weren't."**

**She laughed. "All right, if we're both scared, that makes it better. As long as we stick together, I'll try my best." She then winked. "You can count on me."**

**"That's all I could ask for. Now come on," I said. "I'll teach you how to improve your aim."**

**I went to the hunting section and grabbed another .22 with a couple of boxes of ammo. I grabbed mine and went back to the roof. I shuddered; it got really cold since I was up.**

**I looked down the ladder and saw Diane beginning to climb up. **

**"You might want to bundle up," I called down. She went back in the store.**

**I went to edge and loaded the .22s. Diane came up a few minutes later.**

**I smiled. She was wearing the brown jacket I suggested. She looked down at herself and shrugged.**

**"It's cold out here and this has great insulation," she said with a smile.**

**I didn't say anything and motioned her over to the edge. I gave her the .22 and tried to teach her what little I knew. **

**"Now the important thing to do is to remain calm. Even when a zombie is screaming towards. If you panic, you'll lose your concentration.**

**I showed her how to hold the gun. "Keep the stock firmly against your shoulder. Hold the barrel firmly with your other hand. She did as I said. "Line your eyes down the sight and focus on your target. When your ready, exhale slightly and squeeze the trigger."**

**She focused down the barrel. After a few seconds, she fired the gun. I saw a female zombie jerk from the impact. A bullet hole was embezzled in her shoulder.**

**"Not bad," I congratulated.**

**Diane smiled. "Better than last time. When Kevin and I tried them out, I completely missed them." She looked at me. "He didn't take the time to show me."**

**"We were all busy that night. I don't blame him from not showing you. Besides, he gave you the shotgun. All you have to do is aim and shoot. The pellets do the rest when the path spreads out."**

**She laughed and tried again. We spent the rest of our bullets before we went back inside. Her aim improved exponentially. Although no matter what I said, she would not believe me.**

**We all got ready to sleep. I looked at my friends**

**"Get a good night's sleep." I announced.**

**I heard Kevin groan. "Bite me."**


	24. New Discoveries

Oct. 20-2:41 p.m.

The power finally went out the next day. I was on the roof, target practicing, when I heard Kevin calling from inside the store. I went down to find the store lit by the midday light from the skylights.

"Diane went to turn on the generator," Kevin explained.

"Let's hope it works."

We went to the back room, where Diane was pumping fuel into the generator. The smell of petrol was heavy in the air and one of the barrels was laying on its side.

"How are we doing?" I asked.

She grunted. "Like I said before, I can't be sure this thing is going to fire up. The pipes are rusted and looks like it has never been cleaned since they got it." She stopped pumping and went to the starter. "Cross your fingers, boys."

She turned the key. There was a clunk, then a chugging sound, then silence.

My shoulders sagged. "It was a nice try."

Diane didn't look discouraged, though. She pumped the handle again and went back to the starter. Again, it made a chugging sound. However, before it died, Diane took a wrench and smashed it against the pipes.

The chugging became faster until it became a steady hum. Seconds later, the lights flickered back on. I yelled happily and hugged Diane. Kevin was jumping up and down behind us.

"You did it," Kevin exclaimed.

Diane smirked. "I know. Never send a man to do a man's job."

I groaned. Then turned serious.

"How long will this last?" I asked.

Diane walked to check the gauges. "We have a full tank now. That should last us three days straight." She pointed to the far corner. "We also have nine full barrels. Altogether, they should last almost a month nonstop."

A month? We might be here for a while. We couldn't afford to wast fuel now.

"Turn it off." I ordered.

"What!? We need this now. I was right in the middle of a movie!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Kevin, we need to better our uses of our equipment. If we go nonstop, we'll run out of fuel and we will have to get some more. I don't want to deliver gas by filling up the barrels and then devlivering them in the car."

Diane nodded. "We need to conserve our energy." She went to the generator and switched the key off.

"What about my movie? I never seen it before," Kevin argued.

"Think Kevin," I reasoned, walking out of the room. "We may need the generator for other uses. It would be completely stupid to waste it on a movie."

Kevin looked furious. "Who the hell made you boss?"

"If I remember correctly, you did."

Kevin didn't say anything after my remark. He just stormed off in the direction of the electronics. He was beginning to get more and more antsy these past couple of days. I think it's cabin fever.

"What's his problem?" Diane questioned me.

I sighed and went to the front of the store to get a snack.

"I think he's just depressed," I explained, unwrapping a candy bar. "He had his whole future planned out when he graduated. The end of the world meant the end of his future."

"He had a basketball scholarship, didn't he?" Diane said, accepting a piece of chocolate.

"Right. He was ready to take the world when school got out. We both were. Then this happened."

"What were you going to do?" Diane asked politely.

I shrugged. "I never found out. However, I had all my money saved for two full years. I was going to trying to find a college in Seattle."

I shuddered for a second, remembering the message I got from John. I still couldn't believe they got to him first.

"What's wrong?" Diane asked.

"Nothing." I began walking back to electronics. "I better check on Kevin. He has the tendency to break crap when he's down."

On the way, I asked her what she wanted to do.

"I wanted to become a doctor. I was studying anatomy in high school and was volunteering at the senior citizen center. Every summer, there would be a first aid training course for paramedics and I would recieved high marks every time I went.

I nodded. "That's why you were excellent at bandaging Kevin's injury."

Diane blushed. "I also took summer classes at the college," she said sheepishly.

I smiled. The more I learned about her, the more amazing she seemed to be. She was smart, kind, and always thought about others first. She was extremely beautiful, too. One smile from her and my knees would almost give out.

We walked back to electronics in the dark. Thanks to the skylights, I could see clearly throughout the store. If we kept the generator off and if we used it only for emergency's, we would last a while on what little fuel we had.

We found Kevin on his mattress, his face emitted by a light glow. When we got closer, I could see him holding a portable DVD player: the battery operated kind. Champ, as usual, was by his side.

His eyes were squinting against the bright light when he suddenly laughed out loud.

I sat beside him. "What are you laughing about?"

"The Three Stooges," he told me.

Diane sat on his other side. "Classics."

Kevin nodded. "There are no comedians better than these guys. I wonder sometimes how their stupid antics can make people laugh."

"You can relate," I joked.

Diane giggled. Even Kevin sort of snorted. He then put the player on the ground so we could all see it. I went to the racks and brought a couple of speakers. We hooked them up to the player so we could have louder volume.

We spent a couple of hours watching more dvd's. The sun was fading from the skylights and I was beginning to get bored.

"Is there anything else we could do?" I asked.

"Well, what did you expect? We can't exactly order a pizza or go to the movies," Kevin remarked.

I sighed. "You're right. But there has to be something else we could do."

"How about a board game?" suggested Diane.

"No. That has become old."

"How about we play basketball?" Kevin asked.

"No!" Diane and I yelled.

Kevin glared at us. "Why not?"  
"Because you win every time," I said. "We need to do something new."

We were silent for a few minutes. This was insane. We were going to be trapped in here for a long time. If we didn't find a way to keep ourselves occupied, we were going to go nuts.

The silence was finally broken by Champ, who sat up and growled.

"What's wrong, boy?" Diane asked, petting his head. Champ settled back down.

"I don't know what's wrong with him," Kevin explained. "He's been doing that for the past couple of days."

I was puzzled. "Why?"

"I really don't know why. He did that yesterday when I was watching a movie and today just before the power went out."

"Really?" Diane asked.

"Yeah. I think he's just as depressed as us," Kevin suggested.

"Maybe."

But I didn't think so. My neighbor once had a dog that would become agitated whenever I had the surround sound system on in my room. And even when my sister had friends over in the backyard. My neighbor, before he moved away, kept yelling at us to keep it down so his dog would calm down.

Clearly something was bothering Champ.

"You said this started when you were watching a movie yesterday?" I questioned Kevin.

Kevin nodded. "I thought he was bothered by the theatre system so I turned it off; however, he still kept growling."  
"Wasn't I on the roof firing shots at the zombies during those times?"

Diane looked puzzled. "What are you thinking about?"

"Well, I was firing the .22 when Champ started growling?" I explained.

Diane and Kevin nodded, following along.

"Apparently, he was bothered by the loud shots. So if he's doing that now-"

It hit me. I jumped up and ran to the back room. I wanted to believe my idea was right, but it sounded impossible.

"What are you doing?" Kevin called behind me.

I didn't answer him. I just hurried as fast as I could to the ladder, not even caring my knees banging against the metal bars.

I finally made it to the roof and ran over to the edge overlooking the parking lot. The were still a lot of zombies out there. But I could see at least a dozen running down the street. Away from the store.

"What's your problem?" Kevin asked me. He and Diane moved on either side of me.

"Look," I explained, pointing at the retreating zombies.

My friends gazed down the street. "So what?" said Kevin.

"They're running towards something."

"What though?" Diane asked.

There was a few seconds of silence. Then I heard a sound I knew that I never expected to hear.

A gunshot. I don't know where it came from but it was a gunshot nonetheless.

"No way," Kevin muttered.

"Impossible," whispered Diane.

"You guys know what this means?"

I did. Someone else in the city was still alive.

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I'm posting a new story up. It will be a Shaman King story with my own creations and twists. I hope you guys will like it.

Also, be sure to check out the photoshop image I made for DtD. There is a link on my profile if you want to view it.


	25. Preparing for Rescue

Ch. 24

We didn't say anything for a few minutes. We just stood there, absorbing the fact there was someone else was alive. It seemed impossible.

I finally muttered, "So what to we do?"

Diane turned to me. "We need to go and help them."

"What?!" Kevin exploded. "You want us to go through Blood-bath city?"  
I rounded on him. "Those people are alive. We need help in any way possible."

Kevin shook his head. "How do you know those are survivors? For all you know, those could be explosions from gas leaks."

I hate to admit it, but he did have a point. Those could be gas leaks or something else exploding.

But then my doubt went away when I heard three more shots, in rapid succesion.

I turned to Kevin. "Convinced," he muttered. "But it's still suicide to go through the city."

Again, he had a point. All we had in our disposal were three teenagers, one shotgun, one sword, five semi's, four six-shooters, a handful of backups, a couple of knives, steel batons, and my half-beaten car.

I really wanted to go out there with a couple of grenades, a couple of automatic rifles, a platoon of soldiers, a tank, and maybe an Apache helicopter.

"Look, I really want to help," I said to Diane. "But if we don't have a plan, we are not going to get five feet out the door."

"Why don't we do what we did last time? Cause a diversion and sneak away."

"Because last time, there was not an army of zombies outside of the store, only a few of them were in front of the store at the time," Kevin pointed out. "Also, it was night."

"Well it's almost evening now," Diane countered, waving an arm at the setting sun.

"And we are better armed now," I pointed out. "We have a better chance than last time."

Kevin didn't answer us right away. He just walked to the edge of the store and begin pacing back and forth. I could see the frustration between his decisioins. He wanted to stay alive, but he wanted to help. This was not a choice for the weak. A real challenge.

But I knew Kevin. He would never back away from a challenge.

He came back with a determined look on his face.

"All right. I'll help," he said. He pointed a finger at me and said "but if I die, you're going to be the first person I bite."

"Fair enough," I grinned.

"So what do we do?" Diane asked.

"We prepare."

We went back down and turned the generator on. We needed the light so we could gather supplies. Diane started loading a backpack full of medical supplies, Kevin loaded a couple of handgun magzines and the revolvers, and I surveyed the area from the roof. I had a pair of binoculars and a map of the city. Judging by the sound of the echo and the direction I'm sure it came from, the survivors could be within a two-mile radius, east of the store.

This was not going to be easy. East of the store was nothing but houses, small convience stores, the skating rink, a clothing store, and a suburban housing complex. We could spend hours, maybe even days, looking around and not find anybody.

I spent a couple of more minutes observing the map. Even though I lived in this town all my life, I never been on the east side of town. I never found a reason too; furthermore, it was a maze of streets and dead ends. This, to me, was going to impossible.

Rolling up the map, I went back to my friends and suited up for the trip. I put on a couple of pairs of sweats and a pair of black khakis. Also, a couple of pairs of long-sleeved shirts and put on the leather jacket I wore the other night. For my limbs, I pulled on a pair of black steel-toed boot and a pair of fingerless paintball gloves. I wore black was to blend in with the night.

When I was done, I went to the hunting section. Kevin was was double-checking all the guns, his sword strapped to his back. He looked up from his work when I approached.

"Are we ready to go?" I asked.

He smiled. "You look like a Special Ops soldier."

I laughed and looked at his ansemble. He only had on a pair of black sweats and an underarmor shirt. Like me, he wanted to blend with the night, but why thin.

"And you look like a ninja. Why are you using thin fabrics?"

He shrugged. "I want to be able to have speed when I using my sword or running away." He suddenly withdrew his sword and swung the blade right in front of my face. I didn't even have time to blink.

"If I wore too much, it will slow down my strokes," he explained. It made sense.

"So are we ready to go?" I asked, picking up my favorite Beratta.

"Yep," he told me. He pointed to all the guns on the table. "All these guns are ready to go. I loaded the other automatics and revolvers so in case we do find survivors, they can have a weapon to defend themselves."

"Good idea, but what are these?" I asked, pointing to a pile of straps.

"Those are for you," came a voice behind. There was Diane, carrying the backpack full of her medical supplies. "I made them for you. They're holsters."

I picked them up. "You made them?"

"Yeah. In my spare time."

I strapped them on to my belt and legs. They fit perfectly. They even had snaps to secure my handguns in place.

"Thanks. This will really help," I said graciously, holstering my Beratta and a Glock.

"No problem." Diane shouldered the backpack. "Are we ready?"

"Yep," I announced. "Let's head to the garage."

We put the handguns into padded cases and put all the loaded clips into a seperate backpack, along with a few extra boxes of bullets. We also each had a small .38 for backups. I put on a belt and latched a sheath for my knife and my steel baton. Then I put a couple of extra magazines in front pockets of my jacket. Finally, I stuck the .38 in the waistband of my jeans. On the way to the garage, I pulled a baseball cap from the racks. It was black with red dragon on it. I always liked dragons. I don't know why, but the cap would help me conceal my hair.

We loaded everything up in the car. I was about to slide into the driver's seat when I realized something.

"Guys, doesn't one us need to stay here? You know, to open and close the door?" I asked innocently.

They stopped at once. How could we be so stupid to forget something like that? Why didn't we think about this before?

"Okay, so who stays behind and guards the fort?" Diane asked.

"Well, we could flip a coin," Kevin suggested.

"There's three of us. How is that going to work?"

I sighed. "I'll go regardless what you guys decide. So it should be between you two."

"Why should you decide whether you go?" Diane said angrily.

"Because I want to," I said sharply. "Conversation's over. Now flip the damn coin."

They both scowled at me. Kevin pulled a coin from his pocket. He hesitated, then flipped it.

"I call heads," Kevin called. He caught the coin in his palm and closed his fist. Even though I wasn't envolved, I could feel my heart beating in my chest. One of my friends will go on this suicide mission and might not come back.

Kevin took a deep breath, then opened his palm. Heads.

He looked up. "I won. So I choose to go."

I smiled. I knew Kevin was doing this for me. He knew I wanted to keep Diane out of this mission.

"Well, it looks like I'm going. I'll see you when I get back," he said to Diane. He opened the door and got into the passenger side. But before he could close the door, Champ trotted over.

"Yes, I will see you later as well," Kevin mumbled, scratching Champ's ears. After a few moments, he pushed Champ away and closed the door.

I turned to Diane. It shocked me to see that she was crying slightly.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just feel left out. I want to be there with you."

"Why though?" I thought she wanted to stay here were it was safe.

She didn't answer right away, but she did put her arms around my neck.

"I'm not scared to go out there," she whispered. "But I am scared that I might not see you again."

I wasn't expecting that answer. Diane really did want to go. Not only because she wanted to help the survivors, but because she wanted to be with me.

I hugged her tightly. "Don't worry about it. I promise I will come back."

She pulled away. "Really? You promise?"

I pecked a kiss her on the forehead. "I promise. Now you better get upstairs and provide us with a distraction."

She smiled and walked away. I watched her go, wishing I had more time to say good-bye.

"Anyday now!," Kevin yelled.

That snapped me out of my daze. I walked around the car and joined Kevin in the driver's seat. I took a couple of deep breaths. They didn't help.


	26. CRASH and follow the leader

Ch. 25

The silence was nervwracking. Especially when your waiting for a distraction that could lead to your doom.

"You ready for this?" I asked Kevin.

There was a bit of hesitation on his face. He swallowed and nodded his head shakily. "Yeah, I'm ready."

I could tell he wasn't. But I wasn't ready as well; however, it was good to know that we both weren't.

"Hey, was that your trick coin?" I asked.

Kevin bit his lip, then slowly nodded.

"I didn't want you to worry about her. This way, she'll be safe in the store." He glanced at me. "You're not mad, are you?

I shook my head. "No. Thanks." Kevin grinned a little bit.

"Hey, can I ask a favor?" he asked.

"Sure," I nodded.

His face was working on what to ask. He seemed to be terrified almost. "If I get bitten, will you....you know."

I looked at me feet, then back to him. "Yeah. If it comes down to that, I will do what is necessary."

He held out his hand. "Thanks."

I shook his hand. "Rather be dead than among them."

He smiled at my saying. "That would be a cool bumper sticker now."

We turned back to the front and waited. It wasn't a long wait. Through the metal and concrete, I could hear the far off shotgun blasts and the infuriated roars of the undead. There were a couple of more shots, then I heard Diane's voice on the radio say "Now!"

"Let's rumble," Kevin muttered as he pressed the open switch through his window. The door slowly slid up and we shot through just as soon as there was enough room. I stopped the car as soon as we cleared so Kevin could get out of the car and pull the shutter door back down. He ran back and got into the car as soon as it was locked.

"Go," he said impatiently.

I floored and we tore out into the parking lot. I think we should have waited a little longer for the distraction because not all of the zombies were on the other side of the store were Diane was still blasting away. The zombies suddenly saw a car speed out from the garage, then decided it would be easier to catch us instead.

"Oh, shit," Kevin cursed.

We were instantly surrounded by a small pack. I was still going pretty fast so we flattened a couple of them. But they slowed us to an almost complete stop. The others pounded on the glass with their bloody and broken hands, slightly cracking the glass.

I had the pedal to floor. I could hear the engine screaming and smell the smoke from the burning rubber of my tires. It seemed like eternity before there was spot where the zombies seemed to thin out. The tires caught on the pavement and we shot throught the last of the zombie mob.

"Yes!" Kevin yelled, punching his fist into the dashboard.

I turned the car out of the parking lot and west towards the direction of the gunshots. I could see the zombies falling behind in my rearview mirror.

"That was close," I sighed. I made a left on the highway and turned towards the suburbs. I could barely see through the darkness so I flipped on my headlights. I just began to relax when my vision was suddenly blocked.

"What the hell?" Kevin yelled.

There was a zombie on my windshield. Male. His breath was coming in rapid gasps as he tried to reach us through the windshield. I began to swerve wildly on the road. I tried to push the brakes, but nothing happened.

"Stop!" Kevin yelled at me.

"I'm trying. The brakes are out," I yelled back.

I reached for the emergency brake to my right when all of a sudden, we came to a crashing halt. The windshield shattered, sending glass everywhere. The airbags deployed in front of my face, whiplashing my neck into the back of the seat. I blacked out for a second. Then I slowly opened my eyes.

We somehow ended up in someone's front yard. Straight into a tree. I never saw it coming.

I turned to Kevin, who was trying to pull a piece of glass shrapnel out of his cheek.

"You okay?" my voice whispered. My head was pounding.

"Yeah," he said hoarsely. He finally got the piece out. "Nice driving."

"The brakes were gone," I explained. Why? I didn't know.

The zombie was nowhere to be seen and there were none in the area as well. Besides the abandoned cars and opened doors, the neighborhood looked like it wasn't attacked.

We stumbled out of what remained of my car. I went to the front to check it out the damage. The entire front end was bent inward from the force of the impact. The headlights were flickering and smoke was pouring from under the crumbled hood. However the tree wasn't affected at all. Lucky it.

"You're right," Kevin's voice came from under the car. "The brake line has been ripped out. Probably when we ran over a couple of them."

"Well, let's not stay here. The noise could attract more unwanted visitors." We unloaded the packs out of the backseat and continued down the road. We still had a couple of blocks until we reached the center of our search zone.

"So how are we going to this?" Kevin asked as he shifted the weight of his pack.

"We split up and search for any signs of recent activity. Bullet casings, fresh footprints, and lights," I explained, then pulled an extra radio from pocket. "Here. Use this only when you find something. This area looks deserted, but we can't the chance of making too much noise. So, use your backup when you really need it. We need to keep quiet."

"Right."

We spent another few minutes walking, scanning the area and checking for surivors. We also marked some trees with knife marks so we would know that we searched this area.

We stopped when we came to a cross road. I looked and read the sign. We were at the center of search area.

"Alright, this is were we break off." I turned to him and held out my hand. "Don't poke yourself in the eye."

He shook my hand. "Don't shoot yourself in the foot."

I smiled and released his hand. We each turned around and headed in opposite ways down the street.

Looking out for signs on both sides of the street, I didn't find anything except empty houses and abandoned cars. I even found a couple of bodies that were too disfigured to recognize. I search for nearly an hour, walking up and down different streets. I was beginning to think that Kevin was right about the gas leaks. Maybe three of them did blow up similtaneously.

I sat on the curb and took a drink from my water bottle. This rescue mission was beginning to look pointless. I've checked houses, the park, and a couple of convience stores. Nothing. I was about ready to give up. I took another drink and felt something brush against my back.

I jumped up, withdrew my guns, and pointed them at the disturbance.

It was a cat.

I groaned. "You scared the crap out of me." I holstered my guns and bent down to pet the cat. "Where did you come from?"

The cat immediately jumped away, avoiding my outstretched hand. The cat walked away a few feet and into the moonlight. I immediately recognized the black and white pattern on his back.

"Maddie?" It couldn't be. I thought he would be dead. But there was no coincidence of the that pattern on his back.

I reached forward again. "Maddie. It's me," I said.

Maddie raised his back and hissed at me. I withdrew my hand. There was something wrong with my cat. Maybe he turned wild with all the chaos around him.

I turned away. "If you're not going to let me pet you I'll just go on my way. I hope you can take care of yourself."

I walked away. After taking a few steps I turned around. Maddie was following me.

Smiling, I turned back to him. "So you do recognize me." I tried again to pet him, but he just hissed at me again.

Alright, this was really getting annoying.

I stood up. "Well if you're not going be my friend anymore, I'll just-"

THUMP

I was thrown violently to the street. I was dazed for a few moments before I realized what happened. Something really stunk. And I realized it was on top of me. A zombie tackled me and now was on top of my stomach. It's red eyes glowed with a determination to eat me. I couldn't tell if it was male or female.

I grabbed a hold of it's neck to stop it from biting me. It screeched and used it's hands to try and knock away my arm. My arm was getting tired very quickly so I had to hurry. I grabbed my Glock with my other hand and put it into the zombie's mouth.

"Bite this."

I pulled the trigger. The back of the zombie's skull blew out all over the street. The body went limp. I pushed it off me and got to my feet.

_Well that was interesting._

**Rubbing my sore arm, I looked around to see if the noise attracted any more unwanted visitors. I had to move just in case. I spotted Maddie underneath a tree in someone's front yard. Holstering my gun, I walked over to him.**

**"So what now?" I asked. It was stupid to talk to him, but comforting.**

**Maddie just tilted his head and looked at me. Then bounded into the street. It looked like he was about to run away. But then he stopped and looked at me. **

**I remember this trick. Whenever he wanted to be fed he would sit next to the door until I moved. When I got up, he would trot to the kitchen. He would even stop sometimes just to let me catch up.**

**I walked a couple of steps towards Maddie. He walked ahead a few steps, then stopped and looked at me again.**

**"Okay. I guess I can play along," I said. I followed him down the street.**


	27. Found

Ch. 26

_I must be out of my mind. I'm following my cat through a zombie-infested city._

Maddie led me through the neighborhood, taking me from street to street. Sometimes he would stop to sniff a tree, a car, or anything out of the ordinary. I was about to lose my patience.

"This is stupid," I told my cat. "You can just live free out here. I don't care." I turned away and walked back down the street.

I only took a few steps before I heard him meowing. I groaned and turned around. Then realized where he lead me. The skating rink.

I walked towards the building. For some reason, I felt like something was in there that needed to be checked.

Maddie looked at me and meowed again. Then he looked towards the building.

"Okay, so you want me to go in the building?" I asked confused. I looked back at the building. It looked really creepy. Like something from a horror movie.

I looked back down and jumped. Maddie was gone. I looked around the street and spotted him streaking away.

"You're not going to help?" I yelled after him. He didn't stop

I groaned and looked back towards the building. Well, this was suppose to be a rescue mission. Might as well try to rescue somebody.

The rink loomed over me as I walked towards the front entrance doors. I half-expected zombies to come around the corner any minute. Adrenaline was coursing through me at the speed of sound.

I reached the glass doors but they were locked. I tried looking through the glass. Darkness only filled my vision. I pulled my flashlight from my pocket and turned it on. The bright beam sliced through the black room. However, I could only see the lobby.

But the beam did catch something. Through the glass I saw overturned chairs and broken glass. I think I even saw blood stains on the floor.

Something did happen here. I had to find a way to get in there. Maybe I could blast through the glass. I pulled out a handgun and aimed at the door. Then I pulled back. I might need the bullets.

I looked around the parking lot. There were potted plants out lined around outside of the front doors. Holstering my gun, I picked one of them up and hurled it at the glass door. The pot shattered, spilling soil over the ground. The glass door only cracked.

"Crap," I muttered. I went to grab another one. But as I turned, I thought I saw something fly past the glass. It was gone. But I could have sworn I saw something through that glass. It looked like a shoe

I shook my head. I must be going crazy. First my cat and now this.

Grabbing the next pot, I tried again. This time the glass door shattered in a rain of debris.

"Yes."

I turned on my flashlight and walked through the broken door. Glass crumbled underneath my boots as I aimed the beam in the lobby. There was no sign of that object I saw earlier. But now that I could see up and down the hallways, there were scattered bags of potato chips and candy bar wrappers. There was definitely somebody here.

"Hello?" I called out. No answer.

I walked down the hallway towards the rink. I've been here before for my sister's birthday parties so I had a pretty good idea of where things were. There was nobody in the first room I tried. Just the manager's office.

The next room, equipment, was full of skates and hockey sticks, but nothing human.

"Is there anybody here?!" I yelled. The only sound was my echo down the hallway.

I tried the last door down the hallway. It was the janitor's closet. Again, it was empty as the others. Just brooms, mops, cleaning solutions and a big mop bucket. I closed the door, disappointed. This was becoming even more difficult than I thought.

The silence suddenly seemed to double. I froze, listening. All of a sudden, I heard the faint sound of crunching glass. I whirled around, just in time to see a figure at the other end of the hallway. It ran around the corner and disappeared.

"Hey! Hold it!" I yelled. I ran down the hallway, through the lobby, and into the other hallway. I remember that this hallway led to the locker rooms.

I turned around the corner. The figure was nowhere to be seen. But I did see a door close at the other end of the hallway. Sprinting, I reached the door and kicked it open. The door flew open and banged against the wall. The sound echoed throughout the locker room. I ran into the middle of the room.

It was empty.

I could have sworn that somebody ran in here. Where did they go? Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.

But then it became reality when I felt something cold and metal touch the back of my head. A gun barrel. I froze.

"Die, you freak," said a cold voice. I could tell it was a male.

I reacted on instinct. I whirled around and pushed the gun away from my head. The person was taken completely by surprise that the gun flew from his hands. As I turned, I pulled my Beratta out of its holster. The gun was aimed at his forehead before he knew it. It all happened in less than a second.

The dude looked like he seen ghost. He looked like he was around mid-thirties. He also looked like a police officer or a securtiy guard. He was wearing a uniform, but it was torn and crusted with dried blood. He had a three-day beard and looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"Don't let your guard down next time," I said. "You might be dead."

The guy had a look of pure terror on his face. "Who are you?"

I still kept the gun to his head. "Rescue."

The guy chuckled. His terror was gone. He suddenly looked amused. "Yeah, right. Now seriously, who are you?"

"I said I was here to rescue you," I said annoyed. "If you don't like, I could just leave you here."

He now looked pissed. "Look, you're just a kid." He gazed at the end of the gun barrel. "A kid with a gun. Where's the real rescue? Army, police, anybody."

"There's nobody coming. Just me."

He rolled his eyes. "In that case, I should have just shot myself."

I ignored that comment. I asked "are there others here?"  
He nodded. "Yeah there's a few of us."

"Lead the way," I ordered, jerking the gun toward the door.

He walked out the door with me on his heels. I kept the gun out just in case and picked up the one on the floor. He lead me back out in the hallway and through a set of double doors. We were now in the ice rink. Even the though power was off, it was still cold in here.

The guy lead the way through the stands to the other side of the rink. If I remember correctly, that was the concession area.

"By the way, my name is Jake," the man said over his shoulder.

"David," I replied. "How long have you and the other survivors been here?"

Jake pushed his way through a set of double doors. "Since these zombies showed up. We've been living off stale popcorn and warm soda. Occasionally, a survivor will show up and we would take them in."

His tone suddenly became strict. "I even had to shoot people who were bitten. Right in front of there families."

My stomach turned. That was horrible. But it was necessary.

Jake led me down a hallway and through one more set of doors. He called out when we were in the concession area.

"Hey, we got company."

I heard a door open on the other side of the room. Survivors walked in, frightened and nervous.

"When we heard the doors shatter, I told everyone to hide," Jake explained. "It wasn't the first time something tried to break in."

I counted the survivors. There were ten of them, all of them looked like Jake. Tired, bloodied, and on edge. There were men, women, and even a couple of children in the group. They were held close by who I guessed to be there parents. Everybody looked at me skeptically.

"Who is this kid?" a woman in scrubs asked.

"Rescue, apparantly," Jake answered.

The woman snorted. "You got to be kidding. This runt?"

This was really getting annoying. I was trying to help and they weren't taking me seriously.

"No, I am not kidding. I here to take you to Wal-Mart. The store is secured and safe. We have even have food and water," I told everybody. Maybe that would help convince them.

The nurse stepped forward. "And how are we getting there? I don't expect to walk to Wal-Mart through a city infested with cannibals."

I hesitated. Kevin and I didn't exactly have a back-up plan for when the car crashed. My silence gave them their answer.

"I see," said Jake. "Well that just sums it up. So much for a rescue."

"I think we'll just stay here," the nurse suggested coldly. "It seems to be safer."

Everybody nod in agreement.

I was losing them. I needed to convince them to come with me. But they did have a point. I didn't have a clue on how to get them out of here. If I didn't think of something, they wouldn't follow me anywhere.

Then a figure stepped through the group. It was a high-school girl, her face mattered with dirt and blood. Her clothes matched her face. The same with her hair.

What a minute. Her hair was actually red. I grabbed my flashlight and shown it in her face. I felt my jaw drop open.

"Kelly?" I asked. It didn't seem possible.

Kelly's face brightened against the glare of the light. "Hello, David. I never thought I would see you here."

I smiled. "Likewise."

"You know this punk?" the nurse asked.

"Yes, and he is not a punk," Kelly defended me. "He happens to be one of my friends."

_Thank you, Kelly._

"Alright, _David_, " the nurse said mockingly. "How are you getting us out of here?"

I pulled my radio out of my pocket and pressed the call button. "Kevin, can you hear me?"

Kelly's eyes widened. "Kevin? As in _my_ Kevin?"

"Yes, your Kevin. He's on the other side of the neighborhood, searching for survivors."

There was a moment of static, then "what's up?"

"Did you find any survivors?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied through the static. "I found a half a dozen survivors at a Burger King. How about you?"

Half a dozen? I was surprised he even found somebody alive.

"There's ten at the skating rink. We have a problem though. How are we getting everybody back to the store?"

"I think I can help with that," Kevin answered.


	28. Escape

Ch. 27

"You can? How?" I asked.

"Some of my survivors are employees," Kevin explained, "and they have cars in the restraunt's parking lot. They just never used them because they were trapped and didn't know where to go."

That was better than I expected. We could everyone out of here in one trip.

"How many zombies are there?"

"None. I took care of them," he laughed.

I glanced at Kelly. She was smiling. I guess she never though she would hear him ever again.

I put the radio to my mouth and said, "can you get here with a couple of cars? We're going to need all the transportation we can get."

"No problem. We'll leave right now."

"Okay. See you in a few," I said and put the radio back in my shirt. I turned to everyone in the room.

"Help is on the way," I announced. Everybody cheered and hugged each other. Kelly grabbed me around the neck, nearly sufficated me. When she let me go, the nurse walked up. Her face had a small hint of an apology but still had an untrusting expression.

"Sorry about before. I learned not to trust anybody in a short amount of time," she explained.

I nodded. "It's alright. You were just looking out for yourself."

The nurse extended her hand. "My name is Sara."

I shook it. "David."

This was a nice moment. I was making new allies and more people would be joining us at the store. Everything was going smoothly so far. I just hoped it stayed that way.

Jake stepped forward. "So what to we do now?"

"Let's go outside. My friend will be here in a few minutes with transportation. We'll wait for him."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Is it safe?"

"Yes. We've barricaded the store to keep the zombies out. But that's were a majority of those creatures are at."

Jake and Sara both exploded. "What?!"

"Don't worry," I said, holding my hands up in defense. "We have a way of getting back inside the store." At least I hoped I did.

They didn't look convinced. Jake had a scowl on his face. Sara pointed a finger in my face. "That's strike one."

_She's giving me strikes?_ "Fine. Whatever floats your boat. Now let's move outside."

I led the way through the stadium. The survivors were talking excitedly with each other. Jake and Kelly were on each side of me.

"So are you sure this place is safe?" Jake questioned me.

"Yes," I sighed. "The entire store has been reinforced so there is no way a zombie can breach it."

He still didn't look convinced but didn't press the issue. I guess a store runned by kids was better than an ice rink with candy bars and soda.

We walked through the doors and into the night. I looked at my watch. The hands indicated that it was a little after nine. If Kevin got here in time, we could be back by nine-thirty.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Kelly.

"How has Kevin been?" she asked. I could see concern in her eyes and the stress on her face. She must have been through a lot.

I sighed. "This whole thing changed him. He's been completely depressed." But then I smiled. "Your the thing that could definitely cheer him up. I know he misses you."

Kelly's eyes glazed over. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

I was about to check my watch again when I heard Kevin's voice on the radio.

"David! Are you there?" I thought I heard panic in his message.  
I pulled out the radio. "Yes. What's going on?"

"We attracted some unwanted visitors. This has to be quick."

I had time to think 'what?' when a screech of tires came from the other end of the block. I looked and saw a black sedan pulling swirving in the street towards us. A white cadillac and red pickup soon followed.

"Kevin, what's going on?" I asked into the radio.

But then I got my answer. Soon after the made the turn, a group of zombies rounded the corner. They were running after the cars like a pack of wolves. I could almost hear them screaming from where I was.

"Move it!" I yelled into the radio.

The sedan revved its' engine and braked in front of us. Kevin was behind the wheel.

"All aboard. This train is leaving," he announced. Then he noticed Kelly and his mouth fell open. "Oh, my God."

"Hello, Kevin," Kelly said. She was actually crying. I looked at Kevin and got a shocker. He was crying too.

This was a guy who never cried once in three days of death and horror. Yet, here he was.

_They only went out on one date!_

"Another time guys," I snapped. I opened the doors of the sedan and got everyone inside. I banged on the door to tell Kevin to get moving. The sedan sped off down the street. Then, moved to the cadillac and rushed people in there too. When that was full, I began to move to the pickup when a voice called out.

"David?"  
I looked at who was behind the wheel. I couldn't believe it.

"Heather?" She was wearing a Burger King uniform that was dirty and blood-crusted. But somehow, she still looked great.

I took a quick glance at who was in the passenger side seat. Shocked again, Charlie was in the car as well. His mouth was open in disbelief. I guess he didn't expect me to be alive and in charge of this mission.

"David, how did-" he began.

"Later. We're in a hurry." I looked back down the street. The zombies would reach us in less than a minute. I closed the door as the parents and their kids got into the cadillac.

The truck was luckily a four-door. I opened the cab and loaded the last of the survivors into the back. One of them was Sara and she looked pissed at the sudden race to get away from the building.

"That's two," she muttered with venom in her voice. Then climbed into the backseat. Despite the situation, I rolled my eyes and climbed into the back of the truck.

"Let's go!" I yelled, banging on the roof.

The truck pulled forward, sputtered, then stopped. I heard the frantic yelling of everybody inside. The engine stuttered as it tried to start.

_Why is that things that run on gas never start when I'm around?_ I asked, looking up at the sky.

I stole a glance behind us and yelped. The group of zombies were less than twenty-feet away. But some of them were faster than others so they were a bit spreaded apart. They were still close enough for me to see their hungry, red eyes in the moonlight.

"Go!" I ordered as I pulled out my handguns. I aimed at the zombie that lead the pack and fired both guns in rapid succession. The first two bullets hit the zombie in its chest. It jerked from the impact, but finally collapsed as the third went right between it's eyes.

That didn't stop the other zombies as they trampled over their comrade. I took aim again and fired again. Three more zombies dropped, but more kept coming. If the truck didn't get started now, we would all be dead.

I felt a sudden vibration under my feet as the truck finally roared to life and pulled slowly ahead; just as I ran out of bullets in my Glock. I holstered it and kept firing with the Berrata, but it wasn't enough. The zombies reached the truck and tried to climb into the cab. The truck finally found some traction and shot forward, nearly taking me over the edge.

Even as the truck sped down the deserted street, three zombies still had a hold of the tailgate. Two males in their thirties and one teenager who looked like the football captain at my high school. I could almost see their desire to feed in their red eyes as the climbed into the bed of the truck. Black-crusted blood clung to their clothes. Pieces of dried flesh hung from their faces. And even worse, the stench of death was coming strong from them. I gagged and aimed the Beratta at the teen's head.

The gun clicked empty.

"Shit," I cursed. I ejected the empty magazine and tried to load a new one when the teen grabbed my left arm. He tried to pull it towards his maggot-infested mouth. The gun fell from my hands. Without a weapon, I reacted on instinct by swinging my right fist into the jaw of the zombie. I heard and felt the jawbone crack as the zombie backed away from the impact. He regained his footing, but his jaw hung limply from his face.

The zombie groaned and tried again. This signaled the other two to attack as well. I kicked one of the guy's in his stomach. The wobbling truck caused him to stagger and fall over the side. His body slammed into the pavement and rolled into the gutter. I almost lost my balance and fell with him.

Then the teen tried again to eat my arm. This time, he succeded in getting my arm his mouth. But with a broken jaw, his teeth didn't penetrate my leather jacket.

I shoved him away just as the other zombie charged forward. Quick as sound, I pulled out the steel baton and extended it. I swung low to his left knee joint. The joint buckled under impact and the fell to his knees. Then, with all my strength, I swung it upward into the zombie's head. The baton connected with metal clang and the zombie was lifted off his feet. He flew over the tailgate and into the pavement. I thought I heard a crack as his neck broke.

_Two done, one to go._

The teen was all that was left. Seeing his comrades die didn't stop his motive to feed. He rushed at me again. I kicked him in the stomach and he staggered to the tailgate. And it was at that moment I remembered my back-up pistol. Cursing myself, I pulled it out of my belt. I aimed it at the teen zombie's head.

Suddenly, with a screech of tires, the truck swerved left down the street the other cars turned on. The sudden turn made me lose my balance and the momentum carried me and the zombie over the side of the truck. It felt like forever until I finally hit the pavement on my left side. I heard a crack as my shoulder hit the ground. Pain shot up through my arm and I almost blacked out. The force of the fall rolled me about a dozen yards.

When I opened my watery eyes, I saw the red pickup floored it down the street. Everybody inside didn't know I fell out.

I raised my self into the to a sitting position. The pain in my arm doubled as I tried to push myself up. I didn't dare move it for fear of it being broken. The teen facedown on the pavement ten feet away from me. He wasn't moving.

It was a challenge to stand up. The impact knocked me silly and my equilibrium was out of whack. When I finally did, the cars were out of sight. I reached into my left pocket with my right hand for the radio and tried to pull it out. My hand came up with only broken pieces of plastic and circuit boards. It was the radio that cracked when I hit the pavement. Maybe it wasn't my shoulder wasn't broken, just the radio.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to move my shoulder. There was a loud pop as the bone popped back into its socket. The pain made me fall over, making my eyes water again. It was a couple of minutes before I could stop gritting my teeth and sit up. I took some deep breaths and tried to stand up again. My shoulder worked almost as good as before but the pain was still there.

It took a me a couple of minutes for me to get used to moving my shoulder again. When I did, I looked around. My surroundings were unfamiliar. The street sign read Kings Avenue. I reached for my Beratta and my last clip. My hand felt nothing but air at the holster. Then I remembered that I dropped it in the truck. My bag of weapons was also in the truck.

I was in the middle of a suburb with no radio, my Glock with one full clip, and no clue where I was.


	29. A Way Home

Ch. 28

"Well this sucks," I muttered as I made my way down the street. I had no clue where I was going and zombies could be anywhere.

_Maybe I am being stupid. I haven't seen a single zombie in half an hour._

I kept traveling down Kings Avenue, hoping it would lead me to a street I would recognize. It was stupid to get lost in your own town. But this was a suburb where the richest people could afford huge houses with football field size backyards. Rich people wanted only the best places that were away from the normal people. It ticked me off that they cared only about themselves.

My feet were getting tired after traveling for so far. I crossed the yard of a big red brick house and sat on a swing that was tied to a tree in the front yard. I let out a breath as the weight was taken off my feet. I must have walked a couple of miles down the street. The pain in my shoulder wasn't helping out at all.

I took a look a my surroundings. All the houses on both sides of the street were kept neat and tidy. The grass was cut evenly and was greener than most golf courses. In driveways that had them, there were fifty-thousand dollar vehicles. Most of them were bought this year.

Then I noticed something very odd. Everwhere I went tonight, cars and bodies littered the streets. This neighborhood was completely clean. No car pileups, no dead bodies, not even a stench of death. Were they the first to move out when the zombies showed up?

I shook my head. I needed to get back to the store. Focus on the problem in front of me and worry about the new one later. Kevin and the survivors might be at the store now and have probably realized I wasn't in the truck. I had to get back before they did something stupid and try and rescue me.

My feet and shoulder still aching, I got up and continued down the street. The dark and the silence was creeping me out. I tightened the grip on my Glock. Hopefully I wouldn't have to fight an army of zombies before I ran out of bullets.

_Times I wished that the street lights were working._

I walked for nearly six blocks when the creepy silence was interupted by a continuing sound of whooshing. I slowed down and held the gun in front me. The sound got louder every step I took. I was at the corner of King and Cedar Avenue when the sound become a dull roar.

A giant white house was at the corner. I pressed myself against it and inched my way around it towards the sound. When I was at the corner, I took a deep breath and jumped into the street.

Down the street was a small cement bridge. The sound was the river.

I sighed and walked towards the bridge. The Jackson river was low this time of the year but was still running pretty strong. In the summer, there would always be rafts, canoes, and tubers on the river. They would just float through the town.

_Wait a minute. That's it! _

The river flowed throughout the town. If I followed it, it would lead to town square.....

....and right behind Wal-Mart! I found a way out of suburbia.

"Yes!" I yelled. Then I shut my mouth. How dumb could I be to reveal my position?

I looked around. The place was deserted and peaceful. But then the silence was shouted by a triumphed roar and the rapid pounding of feet against the pavement. A few seconds later, a zombie ran around the corner of the house across from the white one. It stopped and searched for the source of my yell. When it spotted me, the zombie made a satisfied growl and charged in my direction.

I raised my gun and aimed for it's head. The zombie was a few yards away when I pulled the trigger. The zombie jerked back from the impact. Then crumpled to the ground.

I let out my breath. That wasn't as scary as it usually was but still nerve wracking. My adrenaline was running on turbo. Yet, I felt more confident about the situation I'm in. I wasn't scared anymore as I once was.

Then, I heard the sound of growling and the pounding of feet. It was coming from around the house the zombie came from. It also sounded like there were half a dozen.

"Crap," I muttered. The gunshot must have lured them here. I ran around to the other side of the white house to the back yard.

I stopped for a second. The yard was huge. You could've have played a full game of soccer with all the players here and they still had room for an olympic-size swimming pool. It also had a terrific view of the river. How rich were these people?

A snarl snapped me out of my daze. I ran towards the back door and tried to open it. It was locked. However, it was one of those glass panel doors with wood cris-crossing patterns. Raising my handgun, I smashed one of the panels witht the butt of the gun. It shattered and pieces of glass fell to the floor.

I frantically reached my hand through the open panel and unlocked it from the inside. I opened the door and rushed inside. The zombies came around the corner just as I closed it. I pressed myself against the wall and held my breath. The growling and snarling told me that they were right outside the door. After a few seconds, I could see them passing back and forth through the glass door.

They knew they heard a door shut, but they couldn't find their prey. I could hear them growling with frustration. I was safe for the moment.

I let out my breath and slowly inched my way down the hall. It led me to a pitch black hallway. Then into a huge area. I took a small flashlight from my jacket and shone it in the dark. I was in a gigantic dining room. A twenty-foot long table was centered into the room with ten chairs on each side. Crystal plates and champagne glasses lined the walls. The table cloth was silk.

Leaving this awestruck room, I entered the doorway across the room. I was at the front door that had a big lobby. A fancy, winding staircase was built into the room that lead upstairs. Then to my surprise, I could also see a third floor high above the second one. A crystal chandiler hung from the third floor. My neck hurt from looking at it.

All of a sudden I got this chill. I was in an empty mansion, everybody is missing, and undead creatures are walking outside of the house. Yep, this is how horror movies started. I had a premonition of the Resident Evil games.

I left the lobby, fearing a zombie might suddenly loom out of the darkness. The living room was across from the dining room. I made my way there, but then stopped in my tracks. Unlike the rest of the house, the living room was wrecked. My beam of my flashlight caught strewn papers, crumbled clothes, and a smashed computer in the corner. All the papers seem to have come from the desk. Someone was searching for something.

There was an empty suitcase on the couch. The family was apparently in a hurry to get out of here. But I didn't find any blood anywhere in the house. In fact, I didn't see any signs that zombies fed off any of the families in this area. They must have heard the news early and decided to leave. But everybody in the neighborhood couldn't have had the same idea at once.

I followed the beam of light throughout the living room. All the papers on the floor were legal papers that I couldn't understand. Something about donations and fundings. More of them were about longitude and latitude locations. There were even a few papers that had chemical symbols. By the looks of the dots around the symbols, these formulas looked like chemical bonding. Maybe I should have Charlie take a look of these. I grabbed a couple of the chemical papers and a few of the geological papers. I hope I got back to the store to have Charlie look over these.

Then I spotten one on the floor that stood out from the others. It had a picture of a biohazard symbol background covering the entire page. Instead of a black circle in the center, it was a picture of the earth. There were no words describing what these symbols were and I never seen it before. The symbol was slightly transparent and there was writing on the front I didn't notice when I picked it up. It read.

_**Emergency! Code Breakout!**_

_**Move out immediately to your provided location!**_

That was it. The date was marked the fifteenth. The day of the first signs of these zombie attacks. There wasn't a return address but there was a fax number. I looked in the corner where the computer was. On the desk was a giant laser-printer complete with fax. I walked towards it, noticing a single paper in the paper tray. I picked it up and shone the flashlight on it. Again, the message was short and didn't make any since.

_Understood. Departing immediately._

Unlike the receiving fax, this one was written in pen. It looked like it was written in a hurry. But it was written on a blank medical form that had a return address in the corner. Judging by the snake symbol in the center, this guy was a doctor. The return address was for this house and town. The name in the corner read Dr. George S. Talbert.

_Wait a minute. Monica's father? My ex-girlfriend's father?_

I shined the light at the picture frames on the desk. There, in a family portrait, was my ex-girlfriend Monica and her parents, George and Lisa. I met them only once when they dropped Monica and I at our freshman Valentines' dance. They weren't to pleased to meet me for some reason. They mentioned something about them both being doctor's but that was it. They never did invite me over for dinner when me and Monica were dating. In fact, I was banned from the house before I had even been there.

There were more pictures of the family. Monica at her basketball games, her mom at the office, and her father holding his family in headlocks. There was even one of Monica and her boyfriend holding hands under a tree in the park. That set my blood boiling. And even worse, Mr. and Mrs. Talbert were with them on Monica's side. There was a couple who must have been Kyle's parents on his side.

Why did they hate me and loved him? Were the parents best friends or co-workers?

I didn't stick around the find out. I just grabbed the biohazard paper, jammed the others in jacket pockets, and left the room. My temper was almost at a blowing point.

_Did they have a warning about this? If the did, why didn't they warn everybody else. But then, nobody else was here in this part of town._

I went back into the lobby and searched for the garage. Maybe they left something for me to get out of here. I found a door leading to a room behind the staircase. It was the garage but it was empty. They expensive Cadillac Suburban they had was gone.

But there was something big next to the garage door. I shined the light towards the door and smiled. There was a motorcycle. And judging from the parking decal in the small windshield, it was Kyle's. He always drove this thing to school before it got too cold to ride it. Kyle must have left with Monica and her parents when they got the warning. They must have actually brought him along.

That thought really ticked me off. Then I noticed something that made me smile.

He left the keys in the ignition.


	30. Trapped

Ch. 29

I only ridden a motorcycle once before in my life. When I was twelve, Kevin convinced me and my dad to go to a motor rally. They had different kinds of booths there including riding instruction demos for fans. I volunteered in front of 2,000 people to be led in front of the stadium and get on a motocross dirt bike.

And lets just say it did not go pretty. When the instructor put me on the bike, I hit the accellerator a little too early and the bike shot out in front of me. The bike flipped in the air and crashed into the instructor. He was fine, but he didn't race that night. Ever since then, I avoided all kinds of motocycles and ATVs.

But it was my only chance of getting back to the store in one piece. The label said it was a kawosaki ninja. I didn't know what that meant, but it sounded fast. The gas tank was filled up so I didn't have to make a stop. Lucky. The tires were aired up and in good condition.

I pushed the bike towards the garage door. It weighed a ton. The noise it made rolling across the ground sounded a lot louder than my footsteps. I was sure something outside would have heard me.

This was going to be fast. I had only one shot or else I was going to be roadkill. Setting up the kickstand, I unlocked the garage door and lifted it an inch. I didn't want to open it all the way because the noise might attract the zombies outside. I went back to the bike and flipped the switch to 'on'. Taking a deep breath, I checked my pockets to see if all of the papers were still there. Then I pushed the starter.

For a moment, there was a slight stutter as the engine tried to start. That moment seemed to last an entire year before the engine whirled to life. I lifted the door open all the way from the bike. The sounds of zombies screaming for my flesh was barely audible over the engine. I grabbed the clutch and switched the cycle into first gear. For a brief moment, the tires spun against the pavement. I pushed the cycle forward with my feet and the tires caught some traction. In fact, the front wheel shot up into the air. I actually did a wheelie out of the garage. It nearly threw me off.

The entire bike shuttered as only one wheel was on the ground. It seemed like a miracle I wasn't thrown off. But then there was a thud and a body went flying towards my right. The bike started to weave back and forth, threatening to tip over. Sensing the danger, I leaned forward. My weight pushed the front wheel back onto the ground. I could finally see what was in front of me and I could see that I was about to crash into a set of trash cans that were on the other side of the street. I gripped the hand brakes at the handlebars swung the bike to the left. The tires squealed as they came to a stop just a foot away from the trash cans.

I let out a breath, but then it was lost as six zombies came barreling towards me. I could see at least a dozen more coming from around the house. My hand nearly sprained as I jamed the throttle as far as it would go. The screeching of the tire mixed with the zombies' yells. The bike nearly shot out from under me and I thought I felt one their hands trying to grab my jacket. The bike leaned into the middle of the street as a made my way to the bridge. Over my shoulder, the zombies were chasing me, but to no avail. Their roars of frustration faded away as I drove over the bridge.

Giving a yell of victory, I shifted gears as I zoomed over the bridge, picking up speed. The cold air actually felt pretty good. I took a deep breath, admiring the fresh air of the area that hadn't been containimated by the smell of death. The bike's headlights guided me on the darkened street on this cloudy night. The moonlight through the clouds barely gave me enough light to see.

The street I was on followed the river so that's the way I went. Jackson river only extened a few miles throughout the city. With some luck, I would be at town hall within a few minutes. Hopefully Kevin and the others made it back already. I prayed they didn't lock the doors.

The street curved left and right with the river. I even went over another bridge at one point. Finally after a couple of miles, I emerged out of suburbia and into town. My surroundings became familiar as I made my way to a 'T' and the end of Kings Ave. Left would take me to the south side of town, near the golf course. Right would take me to town hall.

I leaned to the right, heading east. The dark buildings on either side of the street loomed over me. They seemed to be watching me. But at least they were recognizable. I finally felt a litte safe now that I knew where I was.

After a couple of blocks, the side-to-side buildings gave way to a opening. Town hall was a three story building surrounded by half an acre of green grass. The building was built in 1912. It's were most of the town's meetings took place. Once a year, there would be a small carnival celebrating our town's birthday. I'm going to miss those memories. I stopped in the middle of the street and turned off the cycle, trying to remember the old days. It seemed like six years instead of six days. I almost forget what it was like to feel safe, to sleep in a bed, to eat a table with my family, and to go out into the streets. I took a deep breath, then winced when my shoulder gave a throb of pain. I nearly forgot about it because of all the excitement. I rubbed it and looked around.

I could barely see the hall through the dark. The building glowed faintly because of the white paint though it was beginning to peel. Then I saw an object that nearly made me cry. The clouds broke for one second and the moonlight casted a glow on the entire area. And through that glow, I could see the faint outlines of the Wal-Mart building. Home. My new home. I smiled and turned the cycle back on.

Then I got this creeping feeling. Something felt really wrong. Surely the sound of my motorcycle would have caught the attention of at least a couple of zombies. Yet, the street was completely void of them.

I guided the cycle down the street. I didn't go fast because I wanted to feel safe. I couldn't explain why I felt that way. Maybe I was trying to lure zombies to myself because the silence was creeping me out. Also, there were abandoned cars littered in the street. Some of them even showed signs of deceased victims eaten beyond recognition in the driver's seat. There were scorch marks on some them. I guess a couple of them were on fire and burned out.

The street came to a four-way with a traffic light hanging overhead. It swung slightly despite the fact there was no breeze. I braked and looked both ways. Left would take me to the other end of the city, where the baseball fields for little league were. Right would take me to main street and the center of town. It was a straight shot to Wal-Mart. I leaned the bike left, dodging cars and debris. This big feeling of emotion began to swell up in my chest. I was almost home. I was going to see Kevin, Charlie, Heather, Kelly, and even Jake and Sara. I was going to see Diane again. When I thought about that, I could feel this weird heat coming from my neck.

I tightened my grip on the throttle, speeding up slightly as I weaved my way through the debris. The emotion inside me felt like it was ready to burst. But as I was about to come in view of Wal-Mart, there was a muffled boom that was noticable over the sound of my engine.

"What the hell...?"

It sounded like the boom came from the parking lot. I eased the cycle to a stop and shutted off the engine. Pulling out my Glock, I dodged in between cars towards Wal-Mart's parking lot. The muffled booms became came quicker and there was also the sound of a constant rumbling that seemed to get louder as I got closer. I eased myself on my knees as I got to last car that was between me and the parking lot. Taking a deep breath, I raised myself up and peeked over the car's roof towards the parking lot. That breath was instantly lost when I saw what the rumbling was.

The three hundred zombies that were there earlier had now become at least a thousand. The rumbling I heard was them yelling and screaming like their lives meant it. Everyone of those things was surging towards that was at the center of that bloody mass.

Then a bang echoed over the parking lot. The sound came from the center of that pile. The screaming horde of zombies obstructed my view from what was going. I climbed on top of one of the abandoned cars. From this position, I saw what was causing all of the ruckus in the center. When I saw what it was, I nearly passed out from shock.

All three vehicles that left the ice arena with the survivors was at the center of that death bath. All of the zombies were piled so close to each other the survivors couldn't move. The bangs I heard were gunshots from the black sedan, the one that Kevin was in. He must have taken out his backups.

And even worst, some of the windows were broken out. Several zombies were trying to force their way through.

Everybody was trapped. I could almost hear their screams of terror. It almost made me scream with them. They weren't going to make it.

Unless......


	31. David's Plan and Kevin's Plan

Ch. 30

"Oh, man. This sets high on a scale of one to stupid!" I yelled as I kickstarted the bike to life. The engine was barely heard over the screams of the horde of zombies. I then walked the bike throughout the cars till I came out into the open.

This was the only idea I could think of. When we first got to the store, I remembered the diversion plan we did so I could get to the pawn shop. Maybe it would work again. After all, these were zombies and I was fresh meat. If they could not get their meal out of a can, they will go for the the free range.

The plan would ride the motorcycle on the road that was beside the parking lot. Hopefully, the zombies would see me and decided that I would be an easier dinner. This distraction will give my friends a chance they need to get back into the store when the crowd thins out to chase me.

When my friends make it back into the store, I'll circle around the block and get back into the store before the undead could catch me.

Yeah, easier said than done. I could only hope that my plan will work again.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the bike forward and turned the throttle as far as it would go. The cycle leaned to the right side of the street. I was nearly twenty feet away from the nearest group of zombies. They were struggling to get past the other zombies that were centered around my friends. Their shrieks of frustration almost turned my insides to liquid. I never heard anything like it.

As I shot past, a few zombies immediately turned the attention to me. They roared and began to chase me down the street. The sound of their comrades roaring and the sudden movement made more of the zombies look to see what was the commotion. Soon, most of the zombies on the outside of the horde focused on me. They ran over the curb and into the street.

_Well, it's working so far._

When I came to the corner of the street, I stopped and checked out the damage. Only a couple of hundred zombies had followed me. It wasn't enough for the vehicles to break through. I looked over my shoulder towards the group that had follow me. I had about eight seconds before group that had followed me would reach my position. But now there was more space in the parking lot than there was before.

I turned the throttle and leaned to my right as far as I could. The cycle did a 180, facing the zombies that were now in front of me. I pushed my feet forward and then leaned the bike to the left. There was a bump as I flew as I drove over the curb and into the parking lot. I was now between two groups of zombies. The group that followed me shifted their direction into the parking lot. The other group still didn't notice me.

The gap between the two groups of zombies was narrowing. I shifted gears and the cycle picked up speed. Reaching the gap, I pulled my Glock out of the holster. I fired two shots above my head. More than half of the group that was terrorizing my friends immediately turned their attention to me. Seeing a live person zoom past them sent the zombies into a frenzy. They began to chase me as I barely made it through the gap between the two groups of zombies.

My stunt was now leading me in the direction I just came from. At least I made it through the mob. I didn't dare look over my shoulder for the fear of losing my balance, but I could hear hundreds of screaming voices behind me.

_Okay, now what?_

I was heading towards the cars the blocked most of the street. I couln't make it through without wrecking, so I had to come up with a plan B.

Then I saw an opportunity, but not a good one. It seemed that my only chance would be to cross the parkBefore I hit the cars, I made a sharp left turn and drove into the parking lot of the city park. The zombies were right behind me. I turned the bike left again, driving over the grass and into the park. Then I realized the flaw in my plan as I drove through the entrance to the park.

_Damn it! I forgot about the stupid fence._

I rounded the area as I observed my surroundings. The fence that surrounded the one acre park was one of those old-fashioned metal fences. It reminded me of a church courtyard. It was made of iron. All of the pikes were welded together and driven a good distance into the ground. The stood six feet tall, ending in sharp points. Each pike had a clover design on it.

It was a dead end. I just screwed myself.

A loud snarling noise snapped me out of my daze. The zombies just entered the park through the entrance. Some of them tried climbing over the fence, only to skewered by the sharp points. However, they kept moving.

I throttled the cycle and sped towards the other end of the park. I stopped just before I would have crashed into the fence. The was only one entrance to the park so I had only a few seconds to figure out what to do. It to be quick; they were only a a hundred yards away.

The street and Wal-Mart where at the other end of the area. I was at the southeast corner of the park. The zombies, still closing in, were cutting across the park in my direction. If I didn't think of something soon, I was going to be eaten alive.

Then I realized my surroundings. The fence was smaller than it looked like from a distance. Even though it was a good six-foot tall, it was the same height as me. My first instinct was to climb over it, but there were no hand-holds to climb on. And the sharp, clover points at the top of the fence would only cut me to ribbons. So, there was only alternative.

Jump over.

I set the kickstand down and swung my feet on to the seat. As I stood up and a moment of balancing, the first zombie reached my position. I jumped towards the fence just as I felt it's fingers hit my feet. The top bar on the fence was almost the same height as my feet on the bike.

But by some odd luck, my feet slipped on the leather seat on the motorcycle. I lost a lot of momentum and speed. I could see that I wasn't going to make it. But at the last second, I pulled my feet to my chest. This let me have another foot of space.

My feet landed on the top bar, just as the horde of dead swarmed my motorcycle. The second I landed I stood straight up. Then I lost my balance. Whirling my arms, I tried to shift my balance forwards. It worked. I fell forward towards the ground. I felt my right leg brush one of the spikes on the fence. The impact from the sidewalk knocked the wind out of me. I filled my lungs again as the dead crashed into the fence. It gave away, but only a couple of inches.

I sprang to my feet and ran along the fence towards the store's parking lot. Zombie after zombie rammed into the fence as I ran past them. Their hands shot through the fence, trying catch me and drag me towards their black and greedy mouths. A snarl of frustration came from each one of them as they failed to grab me.

It wasn't until I entered the parking of Wal-Mart that I looked back behind me. They fence still held as the dead pushed against the iron fence. Almost all the zombies followed me into the small park; however, about tweny of them remained in the parking lot. They were still trying to get my friends. But now that there were less zombies, the convey moved much better now and the dead were being elinimated as they were either runned over or shot.

I ran forward to help my friends. But my right leg suddenly slowed me down. It felt stiff, numb, and sore all at the same time. I glanced down and saw a dark stain spreading through the layers of torn fabric and into my boots. I kneeled down and pulled my knife out of my jacket. The fabric cutted easily away through the already huge hole. What I saw nearly made me pass out.

"Oh, shit."

My right leg was sliced open in a 8 inch cut. I could actually see parts of fat and muscle. Blood was leaking out of my leg like a faucet. But I'm pretty sure I didn't hit an artery or vein. If I did, blood would be squirting out. I must have cut myself on the fence when I landed on it. Now that I noticed the wound, I felt the pain coming like a freight train. All of the adrenaline wore out and now it felt like my leg was being sawed off.

I ripped off the rest of the frayed pieced of my jeans. I lengthened the fabric and wrapped around my leg. Taking screaming gasps, I tightened the tourniquet. I needed Diane or Sara to do the real work, but this would have to do.

"Snnrllll!"

The sudden snarl made me look up. I cursed. I was too busying paying attention to my leg that I didn't notice one of the zombies break away from the convey and head straight towards me. The dead teen girl was nearly on me by the time I noticed. I reached for my gun and screamed. My Glock was on my right leg holster and the slightest touch on my leg sent fire through my body.

In the split millisecond, I realized that there was nothing I could do. I just closed my eyes and waited for the girl to end my life. But then a shot rang out and there was a thump beside me.

I opened my eyes. The girl was lying on her side, a bullet hole in her forehead. A little blood and brain was leaking out and onto the pavement. I looked around for the source of the gunshot and saw Kevin with one of his back-up guns. The gun still pointed at the girl as he walked towards me. He made sure the girl was dead before he turned to me. The gun was suddenly on me.

"Are you bitten?" he asked cautiosly.

"No," I gasped. I could feel my leg getting worse.

He motioned the gun towards my leg. "And what's that?"

"I cut myself....leading them over...there," I explained, pointing towards the park.

He considered that. Then reached out his hand. I grasped it and sucked in my breath as he lifted me on my left leg. It still hurt like hell. He put my arm around his shoulders and grabbed my waist with other arm. He sort of half dragged, half carried me towards the others.

Jake and one of the other guys were finishing off what was left of the dead. They had the other semi-automatics that Kevin had in his bag. Jake had his expertise with a firearm and soon all of the dead were elinimated. He then ejected his empty clip and looked at me. I could see disbelief on his face.

"I thought you were dead," he said.

"Not quite," I gasped. The pain in my leg seemed to double as Kevin carried towards him.

Jake stared at me for a second longer, then looked at Kevin and said, "are we going forth with the plan?"

I turned to Kevin, who nodded. "Yep."

"What plan?" I questioned.

Jake grinned. "You'll see." He then pulled the sleeves of his shirt and began to tear it to shreds.


	32. Into Darkness

Ch. 31

"Are we ready?" Jake asked over his shoulder.

I followed his gaze and saw that everyone had evacuated the vehicles. They were led by the other guy with gun, who I realized was Charlie. He jogged towards the front entrance with Heather; everyone else followed behind him.

I heard a splatter of liquid on the pavement and turned back towards the cars. Sara was on the other side of the station wagon. She had a tube in her hands. The sound was gasoline being syphoned out.

"It's ready," she announced.

Jake walked to other side of the car and handed his jacket fabric to Sara, who was doing something with the gasoline.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked.

Kevin was the one who answered. "We were hoping to reach the store before the zombies got here. Once we made it safely, we were planning one using one of the vehicles as a car bomb. Hopefully we could kill enough of them that they wouldn't cause us anymore problems."

Then he turned to me and smiled. "We didn't think we would get out of that mess. You saved us all and delivered the dead to us on a silver platter."

"What are you talking about?" I asked weakly.

Jack pointed towards the park, where the zombies were trying to push down the fence. Then I realized what they were going to do.

"You're going to drive the car towards them and hope it explodes when it hits them?"

"Yep," Jake said. He got in the station wagon, started the engine, and began to drive forward and circle around.

"But that's suicide. You are risking your life to a plan that won't work. There is no gaurantee that the car will explode when it hits the dead."

Sara shook her head and pointed towards the gas tank. Instead of a gas cap, there were pieces of Jake's jacket in the gas tank. I then realized what they were going to do.

Sara pointed towards the park. "You guys might want to hurry." Through the darkness, I could see that the fence was beginning to give away. The zombies were almost out.

"Okay, let's do this," Jake said. He opened the door to the station wagon and pulled what look like a tire iron from the back of the seat. Then he placed the metal so it pushed against the seat and the gas pedal. The engine revived up, but Jake kept his foot on the brake. He nodded towards Sara, who lit the rags with a lighter. The rags instantly became aflame.

"Let it go!" Sara yelled.

Jake pulled his foot of the brake and jumped away as the car sped towards the park. Amazinly, it kept in a straight line until it crashed into the park's fence. The car ran over the fence, pushing it forward and onto several zombies, crushing them. However, all of the zombies began to climb over the fallen fence and charge in our direction. Through my hazy eyes, I could almost see the glee and triumph on their faces.

They didn't make it five feet past the fence.

An explosion that made the air shudder and the ground tremble almost rocked me off my feet. The sonic boom was almost big enough to make my eardums pop. I saw bodies flying through the air from the light provided by the giant fireball that lit up the entire street. Shrapnel landed around us; even a few body parts splattered the pavement.

Despite the horror we been through, the fireball rising into the sky was a beautiful sight.

"That takes care of that," Jake stated with a small smile. Sara reached our her arm and wrapped her hand around Jake's She had a grin on her face as well. I couldn't help but smile too.

But then figures began to slowly rise through the smoke and flames. Some of the dead survived. One by one, they got up and staggered in our direction. They didn't run. It seemed the blast slowed them down a little. When the made their way through the fire, I could see that most of them had pieces of metal, glass and fiberglass impaled in their bodies. Some of were still on fire. The sick-sweet smell of roasted flesh and gasoline was heavy in the air. I could hear the others gagging around.

"We better get inside," Kevin announced. He heaved me up and followed Jake and Sara towards the front of the store.

I held out my hand. "Wait a minute. Sara and Jake? Could you put the truck and suburban in the garage? We might need them at one point."

Jake nodded immediately. I saw some hesitation on Sara's face, but nodded too. They walked towards the vehicles and got in. Jake drove the truck towards the other side of the building towards the garage with Sara behind him in the suburban.

Kevin carried me towards the doors. The opened automatically. Diane must have switched the locks on the door so the other survivors could make it through. Kevin carried me to the front aisle and set me down on one of the check-out counters.

"I better go unlock the garage doors," he told me. "Are you going to be alright?"

I nodded slowly. "I'll live." As he walked away, I muttered "I hope."

While I waited for someone to show up, I looked down at my leg. The tourniquet only stopped the bleeding a little bit. The steady stream had now become a slow trickle. I was dripping a small pool at the counter. My eyes followed the floor toward the entranc and saw that I was leaving a trail.  
Not only that, I was beginning to feel a bit woozy. My vision was also starting to be a little blurry. Furthermore, the pain actually felt like it subsided a little bit and was only numb now.

"David, are you sure you're alright?" a voice came out of nowhere. I looked up and saw Kevin, Sara, Jake, and Charlie standing over me. They each had a worried look on their faces. At least, that's what it looked like.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I slurred. I tried to stand up. "I'm just a little bit..."

Charlie and Jake caught me as I fell forward. The second they did, I realized that I was in trouble.

Sara blurted out "Take him to the pharmacy section." My friends dragged me forward as Sara ran ahead of us. I didn't have enough strength to help them carry me, so I kind of hung limp.

I couldn't tell if was a lifetime or only ten seconds before I realized that everybody laid me down on one of the benches that surrounded the pharmacy. Everyone around me was talking but I could not understand a word that they were saying. All sounds were kind of muffled. But I did feel somebody cutting away the legs of my jeans and the other layers I had under them. Then I felt somebody undoing my tourniquet. The numbess in leg suddenly erupted in a fire.

I screamed and sat up. The sudden pain cleared my vision for a couple of seconds and I saw Sara with the tourniquet in her hands.

"What the hell!"

Sara didn't answer. She went into the back room of the pharmacy and rummaged around for a few seconds. She came out with a black bottle in her hands.

"What is that stuff?" Kevin asked.

Sara ignored him. She unwrapped the bottle and opened the lid. Turning the bottle on it's side, she tipped a couple of white pills into her hands. Before I could even blink, she shoved two in my mouth and thumped me on the back. The thump made me swallow the pills, choking me a little bit.

"What the hell did you give me?" I asked weakly.

"Vicodin," Sara replied. "You've lost a lot of blood. We need to seal up your leg so you don't lose anymore." She then turned to Charlie.

"Go get me a sewing kit."

I suddenly sat up as Charlie left. "Are you crazy?"

She shook her head. "If your leg doesn't get sealed up, you could bleed to death." She grabbed a bottle of alcohol off the shelf and took a deep breath.

"Hold him down."

Kevin sat on my chest and grabbed my arms and Jake grabbed my uninjured leg before I could even protest. I struggled a little bit.

"Don't you dare!" I yelled.

"We need to clean your wound. If I seal back now, you could get an infection. Deal with it, you big baby." She then opened the bottle and poured the liquid on my leg. I didn't even have time to brace myself.

The pain suddenly felt doubled. Like someone poured hot lead in my open wound. I'm not going to lie. I screamed like a girl.

Charlie arrived with a sewing kit. His face was pale and sweaty.

"Was that you?" he asked me. I nodded, but it felt like a spasm. "I'm sure everybody inside heard that. It sounded really freaky."

"Now what?" Jake asked.

"Now we wait," said Sara.

"Wait?! I got a hole in my leg and we have to wait?" I yelled.

"Only you can tell us that."

"Me? What to you mean by....

Then this feeling hit me like a blanket on a cold day. I suddenly felt happy, satisfied. The pain in my leg seemed to fade away every second.

Sara smirked. "Are you feeling the efffects?"

I smiled and nodded. "Oh, I'm feeling them alright." All of my muscles relaxed. My eyelids were beginning to flutter.

All of a sudden I felt someone slap my face. Not at all nicely.

Sara glared at me through my fuzzy vision. "Don't fall asleep. We need you stay concious until we finish sewing you up. If you fall asleep, you will go into shock." Then she unwrapped the sewing kit. Finally, grabbed the needle and heated the tip with the lighter she had earlier.

"This may sting," she explained when she poked the thread in the needle hole.

I chuckled. "Right now, I really don't care." I leaned back down and relaxed as I felt the needle thread through my leg. However, this time, Kevin hit me.

"You heard Sara, you need to stay awake."

I groaned as I raised my neck up.

"Where is everybody?" I asked weakly.

"Everybody is setting up more mattresses and getting something to eat," Charlie explained. "We're all okay. Nobody was bitten when we were surrounded in the parking lot earlier."

"How's Diane?"

Charlie suddenly looked stern. "The girl who let us in? Not well. When we brought everyone inside, she looked very stricken. Like she had been crying very hard.

"Why?"

"Umm," Kevin began. "Maybe because I'll told her you were gone."

It took all my strength to sit up and look Kevin in the eye. "What?"

Kevin had this guilty expression on his face. "When we were halfway here, Diane called on the radio and asked how we were. I said everyone was okay, but I didn't hear you answer back on your radio. I stopped the convey and did a head count. You weren't there so I told Diane."

I stared at him. "And no bothered to tell her I am alive?"

"Well, we're kind of busy at the moment."

I rested back down on the bench. "Will someone please go tell her I'm still alive? Dying, but alive?"

Charlie nodded and left. I suddenly felt weaker than before.

Sara noticed my body slacken. "Are you okay?" She expressed concern for the first time since we met.

I shook my head the slightest bit. "I think I just need to sleep."

"I'm only halfway done. You need to stay awake, David."

"Just five minutes," I whispered.

"David!" I heard Kevin yell. His voice sounded very loud, but dull.

"I'm right here."

"Stay awake!" Jake whispered. Odd. Why was he whispering?

"I'm just going to close my eyes for just a second," I announced.

My conciousness drifted off. I could hear everybody saying my name, but I couldn't answer. Then I heard this voice that sounded like an angel. She was saying my name too. Just before fell into the darkness, I felt a small, soft hand clasp mine.


	33. Waking Up

Ch. 33

I drifted in and out of conscousness for several hours. Flashes of light and dark mixed in with images of my friends gathered around me. I could sometimes hear their voices, but I couldn't understand them. The pain in my leg and shoulder sometimes felt numb; however, there were some moments were it felt like my limbs were cut off.

There were dreams, as well. Sometimes I could not tell what was reality and what was only in my memories. One dream was I was at the lake with my family. It was a small lake where my grandparents got married. We went there every year to the empty cabin and spend our days swimming, fishing, and barbeques. It was some of the great times of my life.

Then there were the nightmares. The ones were I'm running through the woods, being chased by some unknown creature. The more I try to run, the slower I get. The loud breathing of the creature gets closer and closer. All around me in the darkness, there are red eyes watching. The fear begins to build up until I feel hot breathing on my neck. I suddenly stop, just wanting to end and embrace whatever is chasing me. Just to make the fear stop.

Finally, I'm at my last one. I'm playing baseball at my high school. All my old teamates are there. My family and Kevin are in the stands cheering me on. I step up the plate in the last inning of the game. My school is down by one run and there are two outs. The first pitch from the other team's pitcher is my favorite, low and outside. I swing my bat and connect with the ball. The ball sails across the sky and over the fence.

As I run around the bases, the crowd goes wild. But the yelling and screaming can not compare to the excitement in my heart. Its rapid beat makes feel like I can fly around the bases.

I'm rounding third base when I spot someone standing on home plate. It was Diane.

I run faster, trying to reach her before anything happens. But as I run, I could feel my leg going numb. I begin to limp towards the plate. Then, my shoulder begins to hurt as well. The closer I get to home plate, the more painful my limbs hurt. It almost makes me scream. I thought dreams weren't supposed to hurt.

I'm dragging my leg across the ground as I near the plate. When I'm foot away, I can finally see the expression on Diane's face. Her smile is as bright as the sun behind her. I reach my good hand out and she grasps it. Then I finally wake up.

The first thing I noticed when the scene left my head was that the pain in my shoulder and leg still did not leave. In fact, it seemed even worse. My eyelids opened like a rusty gate. The second thing I noticed that it was dark, but I could still see. A light was coming from my left. I turned my head slowly and looked.

The stores' lights were on. I could also see daylight streaming through the skylights. It must have been around noon. Then I realized where I was. Someone moved my mattress into the customer service area and turned off the lights. It was dark enough that the store lights could not bother me.

The last thing I noticed was that someone was actually holding my hand. I turned my head towards the right and saw a figure lying in another mattress besides mine. It took a moment for my eyes to fully open and adjust to the darkness. The person was covered with a comforter, but a lock of brown hair was visible. I pulled back the covers and realized Diane was in the mattress.

She was dressed in the same clothes since the night we left to look for survivors. The were dark bags under her eyes. But she still looked beautiful.

I gently squeezed her hand. Her eyes slowly opened and focused on me. She sat straight up.

"Good morning," I murmered.

Diane's lower lip trembled and her eyes started to well up. Then, without warning, she slapped me in the face.

"You are a real jackass, you know that!" she screamed, still flailing her arms at every inch of my body she could reach.

I raised my right arm and tried to ward the blows, but she got a couple of good hits to my chest and stomach. She only stopped when I started heaving for breath. Then got up and went the desk that was in costumer service.

She picked up the phone that was on the desk, pressed a button, and said "He's awake." Diane's voice echoed throughout the store on the intercom system. I winced at the loud noise.

Diane put the phone back on the hook and walked back towards me. I braced myself when she sat down, but she just smiled.

"I'm done," she announced.

I raised an eyebrow and she laughed.

"I'm sure." Then she reached out and touched my cheek. "You had me really worried."

I sighed and grabbed her hand. "I know. I'm sorry."

We stayed like this for several moments until a voice called out, "aww, aren't they cute?"

I turned my head back towards the checkout area and saw Kevin, Jake, and Sara walking towards us. I smiled and tried to sit up. Pain shot through my body and I laid back down.

Sara hurried forward. "Easy. You're not fully healed yet." She kneeled down on my left side and grabbed my left wrist.

I gasped when she did. She immediately dropped my arm.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"First answer me this. How long have I been unconscious?" I questioned.

"Three days," came another voice. I looked over Kevin's shoulder and saw that Charlie, Heather, and Kelly had joined my bedside as well. "You went into shock halfway through Sara sewing up your leg. Afterwards, you went into some kind of coma and stayed like that."

"Three days?" I whispered. I looked at Kevin. "Is everything alright?"

"First tell us about your arm," he answered.

I sighed and nodded. I started my story from when we picked up the survivors and my battle with the dead in the back of the pick-up truck. Then I told them about falling out of the truck and dislocating my shoulder. Sara immediately grabbed my arm and began to rotate it. I yelled in protest but Kevin and Jake held me down. After a moment of rotating my shoulder, Sara suddenly pulled my arm and I felt my arm crack. The pain made my eyes water, but just as soon as it popped, the pain was gone.

"Better?" Sara asked.

I moved my shoulder and nodded.

"So what happened after you fell out of the truck?" Kelly asked.

I told everybody about my hold up at the house on Kings Ave., but didn't tell them that it was my ex-girlfriend's house.

"Did you get these from that house?" Charlie suddenly asked, holding up some papers.

I nodded. But then I was confused.

"Where did you get those?" I questioned.

"They fell out of your pants' pocket."

I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked down. I was wearing a pair of sweats and a new shirt. Now I was ticked.

"You stripped me?" I yelled.

"Well, if you wanted to rest in your own blood, you should have told us," Sara smirked.

"We didn't have our way with you, if that's what you're wondering," Jake told me.

That got a laugh out of everybody; even I cracked a grin. Then turned to Charlie and Sara. Besides, being the top in the class, Charlie told me he was studying to be a chemist. Maybe he could understand what it meant.

"So, can you two make out what it says?"

He shrugged. "Not without more information."

"But we do know that it is about genetics," Sara added. "The symbols on the paper are the amino acids that make up DNA and they are a key to understanding it. When you fully heal, you can show us where you found them.

"But why is it so important?" Charlie asked.

I said, "Because I think that it may be related to what happening now."

Charlie and Sara nodded, but they still had this confused look on their faces. I don't blame. It didn't make sense to me either. However, it still seemed important.

I changed the subject. "So how long will it take me to walk?"

"At least a couple of months," Sara explained. "Not only did you lose a lot of blood, but there is a giant gash in your calf muscle."

I swallowed. It felt even more painful now that I knew what happened.

"However, I was able to seal the wound. The muscle will be able to repair itself." I noticed as she spoke, she had a grim look on her face.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

No one said anything for a second. It was Diane who answered.

"David, you have to understand. Without the proper help and equipment, your leg won't be the same. Sure, the muscle will heal. But it's going to heal wrong."

Sara jumped in. "The stitches weren't enough. I had to use a staple gun to seal your leg. It took fifty-nine of them to close the wound. Also, your leg is going to get worse as you get older. You're probably going to walk with a limp the rest of your life."

I bent my head down until it touched my knees. It was worse than I expected. I was crippled. My chance of living through this crisis just went from a thousand to a million. If something happened, I wouldn't be able to help the others or myself.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Heather.

"Your injury wasn't in vain. Because of you, we're all alive. That's most important."

I smiled. "You're right. But how can I help everybody now?"

Sara stood up. "You can start by eating something. You looked like you've like you lost ten pounds."

"I'll make you something. The usual?" Kevin asked.

I nodded. He went to the food court with Charlie, Heather, and Kelly.

Jake stood up as well. "I'm going to tell everyone you're okay. All of the survivors were worried about you too."

That sent a warm sense of accomplishment flooded through my body. I was really touched that all of the survivors cared about me. But then that warm feeling was replaced with dread.

"Was anybody bitten on that night?" I asked suddenly.

Jake smiled and shook his head. "Everybody is all right. Nobody was bitten that night. It was close, but you saved everyone just in time."

He then turned around and headed towards the other end of the building. Sara began to go as well.

"Rest easy, okay?" she requested, ruffling my hair as she left.

I was now alone with Diane. I turned towards her and was surprised to find her crying again.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

She didn't answer, but wrapped her sheets around her hands. She was fidgeting real bad too.

"What is it?" I asked her again.

Then, before I could respond, she grabbed the back of my head, pulled me towards her, and kissed me. I was shocked at first, but then melted into it. All of my pain and worries just evaporated on the spot. Nothing existed except this moment. It could have lasted forever for all I could care.

After a minute or an eternity, she finally pulled away. Despite the tears on her face, she was smiling.

"Wow. What was that for?" I whispered.

"I didn't want to miss a chance to tell you how much I enjoy having you around. I love you," she answered.

I was speechless. She really did care about me. A flood of emotions were going through my mind all at once and I knew one them was one I hadn't felt in a long time. Love.

"I love you, too." Then I smiled and said, "but when was the last time you brushed your teeth."

Diane giggled and shot right back "oh yeah? When was the last time you washed your face."

We laughed and she kissed me again.

**ATTENTION:** I'm afraid the next chapter will be the last of this story. I have plans for a sequel, but I haven't started on it yet. What do you think? Should I start second story to continue this one?


	34. Finale

Ch. 34

I was bedridden for nearly two weeks. Sara was only a nurse, but she told me she had enough experience to determine how well a patient was able to handle by themselves. I didn't believe her; nevertheless, I didn't want to exert myself. I was also outvoted by everybody so I had to stay in bed.

Time went by really slow. But I had Diane to keep me company. She never left my side while I was in a coma and she didn't leave my side any longer than two hours now. Jake and Kevin brought a television from electronics and a few dozen DVD's. I had hours of entertainment, but after about three days, I was bored out of my mind.

My bandages were checked everyday and cleaned. My wound wasn't infected, by viruses or bacteria. But the staples would have to stay in at least another month. The hole in my leg was big enough that the slightest pressure would open it up again. However, after two weeks, I was healed up enough to walk around on crutches that Charlie found in the pharmacy. Now I could at least limp around instead of laying in my bed.

Everyone was adjusting to their new lives. I guess here was better than an ice rink or a Burger King. Each one of the survivors had a duty and they gratefully excepted it. Also, now I could meet each on of them.

The survivors that Kevin rescued were all travelers from other towns who stopped for breakfast at the restraunt. First, was Charlie and Heather, who worked at Burger King after school and on the weekends. The both drove there in the Charlie's station wagon. Then there were there was the new happily married couple, Brian and Brittany. They were returning to their home from their honeymoon and stopped here in town. One of their wedding gifts was the surburban we currently have. Also, there was Gregory, who preferred to be called Greg. He was a trucker from Ohio whom stopped for breakfast in our town. Unfortunatley, he hasn't been able to reach his wife and children. Finally, there was Chris. Or as he preffered, assistant manager Christopher. He works at Burger King with Charlie and Heather. Much to his unfortunate luck, he just came in to check on the supplies. When the killings began, they locked themselves in the restruant and waited for help to arrive. Everyone survived on the food inside and Chris got food poisoning the evening Kevin arrived. It was fortunate we did because of the power outage. Chris is now fully recovered.

Then there were my survivors. Sara was forced to abandoned the hospital when it became overruned with infected patients. She actually hid in a dumpster behind the ice rink for a full day before she noticed that the back door was opened. She went in and found Jake the security guard. He nearly shot her because he forgot to lock the back door. Scared the crap out of him. Then there was Kelly. Jake was actually her distant cousin and somehow was able to contact him through the busy phone lines. Her parents were bitten, but she was lucky enough to escape and find Jake.

Futhermore, there was the group the surprised me. I actually found a family of four; the Daniels. The husband, Preston, the wife, Helen, and their ten-year old son Larry and their eight-year old daughter Rebecca. The were trying to get out of town when zombies forced them down the street towards the ice rink. Preston saw Jake inside and stopped the van, but it overturned. However, they were all able to get inside safely.

Finally, there were the three teens on the way home from a field trip. I didn't know them personally, but I did recognize them. The went to my school. Night school. Aaron, Gloria, and Heidi. They explained to us that their trip was to the state penatentry. The teachers tried to scare them into thinking that this could be their future's if the didn't shape up in school. They were attacked half-way back at a gas station. A couple of zombies ate the teacher and the group high-tailed it. They camped out on the highway for a couple of days because the heared on the radio that it was like this everywhere. After their water supply ran out, Aaron drove the others back here. They entered the city on the west side, next to the ice rink. Jake saw them and fired his gun into the air to signal them. Those were the gunshots Kevin, Diane, and I heard.

There was a sense of depression in the air. But now that everyone had proper food to eat and a soft mattres to sleep on, there was always something to laugh about. Everyone talked, joked, and cried about their lives, jobs, and families. Each Friday, we would watch movie as a group or all join in a board game.

When I wasn't making my rounds and checking on everybody, I would stay in the office and search the web. There wasn't much to see, except that we learned Dallas, Miami, Madrid, Cairo, Shanghai, New Dehli and Toronto were now destroyed by the world leaders. Whoever was running Yahoo was obviously working for the government and trying to tell whoever was still alive that the leaders didn't have a choice. The cities had to be destroyed regardless of survivors. If it limited the number of zombies, it was a necessary sacrifice. It made me sick that they would think like that.

I only told Kevin and Diane this. Everyone did not need to know the decisions our leaders were making to 'better' the world. Besides, Greg's family resided in Miami. I know I should tell him, but I'm afraid he might do something rash.

Then everyone surprised me. After three weeks of the same routine, everyone began to train themselves. In a short amount of time everyone knew how to load, clean, and use a firearm, how to kill a zombie with a knife, and how to defend themselves using only their hands. It impressed me on how much they learned.

But as I watched them, I felt this great weight being pressed on my back. Everyone was asking me what needed to be done or what they could to help. I was now in charge of eighteen people, not just two. Everyone here, now including Jake and Sara, looked up to me for leadership. It was my responsibility that everyone stayed safe. It was my duty to protect them.

I just hoped that I could do that.

It was month after the rescue before I was able to put any pressure on my leg. I could now finally limp up the ladder that lead to the roof and finally see the damage we caused that night. The number of zombies had been cut down by half and those that survived the explosion now limped around because pieces of their legs were blown off or missing.

Then I saw them up close. Nearly every single zombies was beginning to rot away. The walked with a limp, but there faces were now a pale gray. Some were a dark brown because of dried blood. Futhermore, pieces of their flesh hanging loosely from their bodies. A couple of the undead were nearly skinned and the dark, red muscle matter could be seen in the bright sunlight.

But it was the smell that got me. The sickly, sweet smell of rotting flesh nearly made me puke the second I took a breath of the air. It filled my lungs like a poison and the smell remained inside my nose. I got sick even when I breathed through my mouth.

I limped towards the edge on a cane that Diane found for me. Sara said my leg was healing normally but she was still worried about muscle damage and if I could walk properly when the staples were taken out. After they did, I would have to use the exercise equipment in sporting goods to regain the muscles back.

I pulled the radio out of my pocket and pressed the call button. "Are you guys ready to go?" I asked.

There was a moment of static before Charlie replied, "just about. We're loading the last barrel."

We were now on our last barrel of fuel for the generator. Jake came up with the idea to take the vehicles to the nearest gas station to fill up the barrels. The nearest one was nearly a mile away. It made me nervous that I wasn't going out on this field trip. Being stuck in the store with nothing to do left me hyped up. I was bored out of my mind and hungry for action. Even if it meant going out into the city.

_What if they messed up? What if they forget someone? How are they going-_

"They will be fine, David," came a voice behind me. I turned around. Diane crawled through the skylight and walked towards me. She was beautiful as always. A month stuck in a store changed her, toughened her up. But everytime I saw her a smile would appear on my face. Her's would always be bigger when she looked right back at me.

"I know. I just wish I could go with them."

She joined me at the edge and wrapped an arm around my waist from behind. She knew I was restless.

"Why are they doing that?" she montioned to the ground. "Why are they moving so slow?"

"They are dead," came another voice. Sara joined us at the edge.

"Well, duh," I countered.

Sara shot me a look. "I mean that their bodies are slowing down because they're no longer alive. They were able to move so quickly before because they were bitten recently. But now, as their bodies rot, their muscles will break down and slow them done."

I nodded. It made some sense.

"Will they eventually die?" Diane asked. Sara just shrugged.

My radio clicked and Kevin's voice said, "okay, we're ready."

"Okay, we'll bring the rain." I announced. "Don't poke yourself in eye."

"Yeah. Don't shoot yourself in the foot."

I laughed and began firing my handguns towards the ground. Diane fired her shotgun and two zombies dropped. Sara bolted down her rifle and fired once with the few rifle shells we had.

Zombies began limping towards us. The ones that could run came screaming. It took a few minutes for all of the undead to be on the north side of the store.

"Now," I said into the radio.

There was a slight pause before the truck loaded with six empty barrels pulled out of the store. The suburban was close behind it. The zombies stopped paying attention to us and began to limp towards the vehicles. But my friends were long gone by the time zombies were organized.

"Well, good luck everybody." There was a moment before Jake replied.

"Thanks."

I put the radio back in pocket and watch them drive away. The sun was beginning to set in front of them. It was a beautiful moment despite the situation. One that made me appreciate that I was still alive.

I wrote this because I still believe that the human race has a chance to survive. Also because I ran out of paper in the notebook. We fight because we're still here. We continue because tomorrow does exist. We live because we can.

If someone finds this, I want them to know that a resistance did exist in this small town. And that we all agreed on one thing. We rather be dead than among them. And if I could give one word of advice, it would be this:

Hope.

ATTENTION: Finally!! The first book is over. It took a while, but I'm both glad and sad to see it finished. I would like to thank all of my loyal readers. Currently, this story has been viewed 5,816 times with a review count of 61. I could be wrong, but I think this has been a very popular 'Dawn of the Dead' story.

I've already begun working on the next chapter for the sequel. I'm going to try and make this story longer than the first one, but all of the characters will return. They will be more tragedies, humor, romance, suspense and answers in the next book. But I'm having trouble with the name. Right now, the title is 'DTD: Evolution '. If anybody would have a better suggestion, please send me some examples.

The release date for the first chapter will be on March 1st, 2009. Sorry, but I've got a lot of school work that needs to be done this semseter.

P.S. If there are any Shaman King readers out there, could you please read and review my other story. I would really appreciate it.


	35. New Story

Attention: The sequel to DTD is up. Look under the title name 'Deader than Dead: Life after Death'. It's rated 'T' but could be an M in later chapters. Hope you guys enjoy it.


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